ETAD set to merge with TAIPED
The government is closing down Attica Coastline SA while the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) will be bolstered by the absorption of State Property Company SA (ETAD), according to the government’s first draft law aimed at restarting the Greek economy, which was put up for public consultation on Thursday.
The bill provides for the resolution of Attica Coastline and the return of all its assets to the entities they came from. This property return will take place according to joint decisions by the ministries of Economy, Infrastructure, Merchant Marine and Tourism, along with other responsible ministers, depending on the case.
The procedure for and details of ETAD’s absorption by TAIPED will be determined through a joint ministerial decision by the Finance Ministry and various responsible ministers.
The bill provides that “TAIPED will gather all of the state’s real estate properties in it portfolio, aiming at their optimum utilization and single strategic planning for their use.” It appears that ETAD will be the boost to the state sell-off fund that the SYRIZA-led government has promised. Instead of servicing the country’s debt, as TAIPED has done to date, the fund’s revenues will finance social security funds suffering from deficits.
For this to happen TAIPED’s legal purpose will need to change, as its founding law channels its revenues to covering the national debt. The government, including the prime minister himself, has strongly criticized that practice, arguing that even if TAIPED meets 100 percent of its targets it will only be able to cover some 3 percent of the country’s debt. As a result, TAIPED’s revenues “from the sale of the country’s silverware,” as PM Alexis Tsipras has put it, are being channeled into “a black hole.”
The creation of TAIPED constituted an obligation that Greece had toward its creditors, so any change in its status will have to receive clearance from the troika of institutions, and that is unlikely to have already happened.
