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FinMin: It's Easy to Create New Tax on Banks, But We Prefer Better Moves
Tuesday 19 Octtber 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, October 19 (TASR) - It is surprising how quickly Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico is able to prepare a legislative proposal on the additional taxation of banks, even though he was unable to take any tangible steps during the four years of his government, Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Jaros told TASR on Tuesday.
Jaros was speaking in reaction to Smer's proposal to tax banks by an additional amount worth 1.35 percent of selected liabilities. "It's very easy to point to a random group of businesses, choose an indicator of their financial management and create a new tax on this basis. The finance minister prefers better thought-out measures, however," said Jaros. According to him, one of the ministry's activities in this area involves carefully following the discussion at the level of the European Union and G20 on the possibility of levying new charges on banks.
According to Fico, additional taxation of banks could be applied instead of the prepared increase in VAT from 19 to 20 percent and the scrapping of the reduced 6-percent VAT rate on produce sold directly from farms. "We want to offer an alternative that, if passed, would mean that the rightist Government wouldn't have to raise VAT and prices," said Fico on Monday. His proposal is due to be discussed by Parliament in November.
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