BRATISLAVA, November 4, (WEBNOVINY) — Banks will not have to pay any additional levies to the state treasury as of next year. Parliamentary deputies voted to discontinue a debate on a proposal of a group of opposition SMER-SD deputies who sent to parliament a draft bill on levies to be paid by selected financial institutions. If passed, the bill would have introduced special tax for banks at 1.35 percent calculated from a certain portion of a concrete bank’s liabilities. On Wednesday, SMER-SD leader Robert Fico offered to halve the proposed new levy. The opposition party proposed to impose a new duty on Slovakia’s banking houses, which would have to pay a compulsory levy to state coffers as of next year. Opponents of the measure however argued that instead of the desired EUR 186.1 million to state coffers, it would raise close to EUR 400 million for the budget, an amount comparable to bank sector’s annual profit.
In the parliamentary discussion, Jozef Kollar of SaS said that the draft norm from SMER-SD is highly populist. He criticized its poor technical and factual quality. He underscored that though the SMER-SD leader several times announced before 2006 elections that they would gain more money for social programs by additional taxation of banks, the party failed to do while it was in government for four years.
SITA