Gov’t asks for bank transaction tax

The Greek government presented to the representatives of the institutions its plan to impose a new tax for bank transactions of 1 per mille in order to avoid new stricter measures and cover the fiscal gap and the gap in social security.
These issues will be discussed on Wednesday among Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Labour Minister Giorgos Katrougalos and the heads of institutions.

However, the ‘Quartet’ did not accept the plan proposed by the Greek side with European Central Bank expressing its strong opposition.

It is the third time that the Finance Ministry submits this plan and is the third time that institutions reject it claiming that measure would be catastrophic for the banking system.

However, after the meeting with the heads of the institutions, Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis said the government and Greece’s lenders are approaching each other but there is still great distance between them on some issues.

The two sides did agree on how to tax companies that will manage non-performing loans, that is, if they will be taxed as banks or as companies and whether the income from the loan which will be sold will be considered an income.

Mr. Stathakis said there was an agreement on this issue, without specifying on which points.

According to ministry sources, the government will bring at the new meeting its proposals which foresee maintaining the protection of mortgage loans for the main residence and of loans taken out by small and medium-sized businesses, with a limit at 500,000 euros.