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The negotiations of the technical teams of the lenders with the Greek government in Athens are at an impasse, the Greek media report. According to the sources to which they refer, the representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Stability Mechanism are examining the data on the budget implementation on the basis of the commitments undertaken by the previous government. Thus, they have established a hole in revenue to the amount of 2.5 billion euro, insisting that the government take emergency measures to fill it.

"They calculate the size of the hole in the budget based on the targets of attaining primary budget surpluses that were set in the previous rescue programme and want to impose new tax collecting measures," a representative of the Court of Auditors told the newspaper Ethnos. In his words, the Greek side could not accept this.

According to sources, a technical team of representatives of the lenders yesterday visited the Bank of Greece, where they started to collect data on the Greek banking system. The main data collected are on capital flows from and to Greek banks as well as on the situation of non-performing loans.

This process will continue today and tomorrow, and it is expected that the experts will request data from the Financial Stability Fund.

"The completion of the technical inspection is a priority for the organization of a five-party meeting on Greece during the summit," European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said earlier today. She pointed out that the proposal of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for holding such a meeting was being considered by the European partners of Athens.

At the same time, according to estimates by the Hellenic Ministry of Finance, there was a delay in net revenues of the state budget in 2014 totalling 3.914 billion euro, 3.5 billion euro of which were in regular revenue and 414 million euro in revenues from the Public Investment Programme.

If these calculations do not include the revenue from the profits of the Eurosystem from the Greek government bonds (ANFAs and SMPs) amounting to 1.886 billion euro, then the shortfall will be limited to 2.026 billion euro.

In this situation, the representatives of the lenders and the government have made one last attempt over the past few hours for Greece to receive part of the last tranche of the rescue programme. According to sources referred to in the newspaper Kathimerini, the institutions suggest that the cabinet passes in parliament the "lighter" measures of those provided for in the agreement of 20 February such as the transformation of the general directorate for state revenues into an independent institution, the reforms in the justice system, etc. In this way, the next meeting of the Eurogroup will be able to approve the provision of the profits which the Eurosystem has gained from the Greek government bonds and which amount to 1.9 billion euro.

The efforts aim at enhancing the liquidity of the Greek economy, which is almost on the brink. Sources indicate that, by the end of April, the requirements of Greece will amount to another 4 billion euro, in addition to those that are available in the state funds, in order for it to be able to meet all its obligations in and outside the country. They argue that the additional requirements of Greece to cover all obligations in March amount to 1.7 billion euro and that they will amount to 2 billion euro in April.

It is worth noting that the public sector is already implementing the suspension of payments in all categories except for salaries. It is significant that, according to sources, the Court of Auditors has asked university rectors to suspend the implementation of the budgets with the exception of salaries of employees.

The poor state of public funds and the difficulties that Athens is facing while trying to secure liquidity have caused another increase in interest rates on government bonds with 3-year maturity and once again they have risen to 20%.