(MENAFN- AFP) Greece is pledging another controversial tax hike to close a crucial EU-IMF audit that will determine the future of its bailout programme, a report said on Tuesday.
The Kathimerini daily said Athens is offering to double hotel tax to 13 percent, a measure that runs contrary to Greek efforts to maximise tourism proceeds to help the country's crisis-stricken economy recover.
Greece is also offering to tighten rules on early retirement, and could increase tax on alcohol and tobacco if necessary, Kathimerini reported.
Without directly commenting on the report, a finance ministry source said "hypothetical" fiscal measures were being located to cover a possible fiscal shortage "which will not occur."
The talks with the so-called troika of creditors -- the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank -- will permit the disbursement of pending loans for Greece, but also determine how the cash-strapped country will cover its financing needs over the coming year.
The EU financing programme ends in December, and Greece had hoped to dispense with the IMF's remaining loans -- which come with tight budgetary regulations -- that run to 2016.
But after four years of crisis, borrowing rates for Greece on financial markets remain prohibitive.
On Sunday, Spiegel magazine said eurozone officials had a few days earlier agreed on a third aid programme for Greece, so-called preventative financial help of around 10 billion euros.
The money would come from unused funds in the existing rescue package, Spiegel said.
The troika estimates that Greece must save between two and three billion euros ($2.5-3.7 billion) in 2015 to meet its primary surplus target of 3.0 percent of economic output.
But the Greek government sees this figure as excessively high.
Greece is set to receive another 1.8 billion euros from the EU by December.
Another 12.6 billion euros remain to be disbursed by the IMF by 2016.
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