Prime Minister Robert Fico told bank representatives on May 28 that his government intends to introduce an extraordinary bank levy this year aimed at bringing in revenues of €50 million in 2012, the TASR newswire reported.
"Apart from that, we informed them [the banks] that we're introducing a different bank-levy rate from the one approved by Iveta Radičová's government” stated Fico, as quoted by TASR, adding that this should bring €100 million more to the state in 2013.
Fico stated a number of reasons why banks should help consolidating Slovakia’s public finances, saying that profits of Slovak banks broke new records in 2010 and 2011 and they are in better condition than their parent companies while adding that Slovakia cannot impose a tax on dividends that flow abroad as this would be double taxation. "Thirdly, I drew the banks' attention to the fact that even though they have record-high profits, small companies are still complaining about low access to credit," the prime minister stated, as quoted by TASR.
If banks continue to raise their fees for customers, as they did most recently as of April 1, 2012, the government will require the banks to introduce a basic bank fee package that costs only €1 for people with the lowest incomes, Fico told the bankers.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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