BRATISLAVA, March 22, (WEBNOVINY) – If Slovakia wanted to introduce the new bank tax in coordination with other European Union countries, it would probably not be introduced before 2013, said Finance Minister Ivan Miklos at a press conference this Tuesday. “The opinions of many countries are so different that a realistic prediction of when a unified European directive on how to do so could become a reality is 2013 at the earliest, but more probably in 2014. It looks as though the process of searching for a European consensus is much slower than we hoped,” said Miklos.
In the O Pat Minut Dvanast discussion program on the public-service Slovak Television last Sunday, Miklos said that if no significant progress is reached within the EU, Slovakia would introduce the bank tax from 2012. “Ten countries have already introduced the bank tax; others plan to introduce it. We want to make sure that the major part of the levies paid would end up in Slovakia and not in other countries,” said Miklos.
The Minister also thinks that the money should be deposited in a special fund for financing eventual restructuring or resolving other problems of the banks, instead of financing the state budget, as SMER suggested. According to him, it is important that the expected revenue from the bank tax be realistic, not “a phantasmagoria,” as SMER-SD proposes. SMER proposed imposing a bank levy at 0.73 percent of selected liabilities.
SITA