Gov’t again fails to clear its arrears

The government keeps postponing the payment of its overdue arrears to suppliers and taxpayers. A law amendment tabled on Monday in Parliament for an Education Ministry bill defines May 31, 2019 as the new deadline for the completion of the debt repayment process.

This obviously constitutes an effort to fulfill the pledge Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos made at the latest Eurogroup meeting, on April 5, concerning bringing expired debts down to zero. That was when the eurozone finance ministers decided to disburse 970 million euros to Athens.

Before that, another five deadlines for clearing out all outstanding debts to suppliers and taxpayers had passed without the target being met. The first was the end of 2016, then June 2017, and that was followed by the conclusion of the bailout program in August last year. It had become clear long before that that deadline would...