BRATISLAVA, November 3, (WEBNOVINY) — One of the central issues to be discussed on next week’s session of EU and eurozone finance ministers will probably be a European financial transactions tax. Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos says that Slovakia plans to underline the risks of new tax reducing countries‘ competitiveness, yet if other countries agree upon introducing it, we will not prevent them therefrom. “We definitely won’t throw ourselves on the rails. Of course, if every one else agrees that there will be a financial transactions tax, we won’t be those who would veto it,” said Miklos on Thursday at the Parliamentary European Affairs Committee meeting.
Miklos also admitted that introducing such tax could also be a benefit. “There is certain rationale to it. The amount of worldwide financial transactions is huge and it many times exceeds the worldwide GDP. Many of them do not really contribute to output of the economies; they are of purely speculative character,” says the minister.
Yet according to him, a definite agreement on this issue cannot be expected any time soon. “I do not expect a quick agreement due to the position of Great Britain. At the same time, this is an issue which cannot be agreed upon only in the eurozone but which should be made in the EU-27,” says Miklos. And there is still no agreement with important players outside of the EU. According to him, the U.S. and some other countries still oppose the idea.
Miklos says that the proposal currently being elaborated in Brussels suggests introducing a 0.1-percent tax from transactions in financial instruments except derivatives and 0.01-percent tax on transactions with derivatives. These percentages were set as minimums; individual countries should be able to set higher taxes. Common transactions of citizens, businesses and central banks including ECB should not be burdened by the tax. Funds raised in this way are to be revenue of individual states and should primarily be used for saving and restructuring banks and dealing with bank crises.
SITA