BRATISLAVA, May 23, (SITA) — The Finance Ministry has not accepted objections to the draft revision of the home savings act raised by banks. Home saving bank Prva Stavebna Sporitelna reported that the department refused to accept fundamental remarks by the Slovak Banking Association as well as the National Bank of Slovakia, which raised objections to the retroactivity of the blueprint because it will cancel the title for state bonus for all savers drawing and repaying an interim loan. The proposed rules for the calculation of state bonus in the first year of saving discriminates against savers and reduces the volume of funds provided for housing purposes in the coming years.
This concept would reduce economic activities in Slovakia, put off reconstruction of apartment and family houses, put lower-income groups at a disadvantage and eliminate over 10,000 jobs in the building industry and related sectors. Board chairman at Prva Stavebna Sporitelna Imrich Beres is hopeful that MPs will not vote for the blueprint that is contradictory to the applicable laws and because it would have negative economic and social impacts.
The ministry wants to set unambiguous rules for the entitlement to the entire state bonus of EUR 66.39 and the title to only part of this sum. The department plans to save EUR 13 million annually on state bonus payout. Finance Minister Ivan Miklos reported that the state spends some EUR 40 million a year on this purpose. Furthermore, the ministry wants to slash fees for home savings account administration to a maximum of a euro a month or 12 euros a year compared with the current annual fee of 18 euros. The cap on the fee for contract conclusion is suggested at 0.9 percent of the target sum. Presently it is 1 percent. As a result, fees are to come down from the current EUR 42 million to EUR 32 million.
SITA