The meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis, Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis, Administration and eGovernance Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Deputy Finance Minister George Mavraganis, AMNA reports.

Exiting the Maximos Mansion Hardouvelis said he briefed the two political leaders on the negotiations in Paris. “It went well. We had progress. We did not close the issues. We continue,” he said, while regarding the possible extension of the current programme he said: “there could be one for a very short period of time for technical reasons.”

The government appears certain that there will be an agreement with the troika by the end of the year. A source close to the Prime Minister stated that “those who invest in catastrophe will be disappointed as there was no wreck or destruction in Paris.”

Negotiations with the troika will continue via teleconference calls in the coming days.

Most of the haggling has been over a projected fiscal gap in the 2015 budget, protothema.gr notes. Failure to strike a deal by the December 8 deadline means that the Greek government won’t be able to keep its pledge of quitting its bailout programme by the end of 2014.

The main issues of discontent are:

- A Finance ministry official pinpointed the “number one” issue being the fiscal gap for 2015. A Greek official said that “the timetable is very tight.” Meanwhile, a European source said that the troika would like to see the new law for debt settlement in 100 installments to be scrapped altogether.

- The troika is not satisfied with structural changes in social security thus far and is seeking to see pensions immediately reduced. They also want the pension age to be lifted but believe that this should be done gradually over a five-year period.

- Troika wants businesses to be excluded from the recent law that allows for debt settlement in up to 100 installments.

- Troika believes that there should be a common salary chart for the public sector or, at the very least, a reduction of “extra” bonuses and overtime.

- International creditors are seeking to have VAT rates increase and for VAT exemptions on some islands to no longer apply. They want the reduced 6.5% and 14% VAT rates for items that are considered basic needs to be lifted.

- The troika would like to see Greek labour law to include mass dismissals and changes to the way decisions for strike action are structured as well as changes to the law on unions.

Sources said that discussions with the troika had not resulted in a date being set for the return of troika’s representatives to Athens for a review prior to the Eurogroup meeting on December 8. Nonetheless, the extension of the bailout has yet to be discussed.

The markets have been negative concerning Greece’s early exit from the program with Greek government bonds having slumped and Greece’s 10-year bond close to 8%.

Following January’s serious shortfall in state revenues, the plunge seems to be continuing in Februaury too, according to protothema.gr.

Despite big tax hikes demanded as part of austerity measures by international lenders, tax revenues fell precipitously in January, with the Greek Finance Ministry reporting a 16 percent decrease from a year earlier, and a loss of  EUR 775 million in one month.

The economy team is concerned about the low payments by large enterprises. These are now under the newly established Tax Office for large enterprises, which has received at least 150 auditors from other offices around the country, resulting in the latterbeing short staffed and having small businesses as their only employment task.

According to data from the Finance ministry, of the EUR 1.4 billion left unpaid by large enterprises in 2012, just EUR 225.3 million was collected, i.e. 15.9% of the 20% target set by the ministry and the Troika.

So they were overtaken even by the Piraeus tax office, since small family businesses in this area repaid at least EUR 34.4 million in debts, of the total EUR 215.4 million delayed in 2012, covering 16% of the debts of the season, and are now struggling to pay the remaining 84% (and of course all other tax debts from previous years). Respectively, businesses in Thessaloniki, which owed taxes amounting to EUR 130.4 million in 2012,have paid EUR 19 million (14.5%) during the year.

Given the recession, the ministry has no other means left to rectify the situation but to try to contain tax evasion and improve tax collection.

Meanwhile, after meeting yesterday afternoon, Evangelos Venizelos and Fotis Kouvelis – who lead the two smaller parties in the government – have stated that they will not attend the summit. According to media reports, Kouvelis said the coalition party leaders will go to Brussels to try to win concessions from European partners over a bailout package as soon as Samaras recovers from eye surgery. “We have agreed, as soon as the prime minister has recovered, to go together to Brussels… in order to negotiate and fight for everything that is related to the implementation of what has been agreed,” the Democratic Left leader told reporters, according to Kathimerini.

Meanwhile, Prime minister’s office announced that National Bank of Greece chief Vasilis Rapanos would not be assuming the position of Finance Minister. In a letter to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Rapanos has turned down the position of finance minister in the new coalition government, citing health reasons. “The recent incident that led me to being hospitalized indicated that my health problem has not been overcome,” Rapanos said in his letter, ANA writes. “Following discussions that I had with my doctors, I have concluded that the condition of my health, for the time being, is not what it should be in order to fulfil my duties adequately.” Samaras responded by accepting Rapanos’s decision and wishing him a quick recovery.

According to Kathimerini, Samaras is due to meet the leaders of the other two parties in his coalition government later today to discuss who could fill the role of finance minister. Since last night, the names of ND VP and former EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas and Former PASOK Minister Alekos Papadopoulos are under discussion for the job, according to the media.