BRATISLAVA, July 18, (WEBNOVINY) — The Cabinet wants to forbid banks by law to pass on the impact of introduction of the special bank levy on their clients. As Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said after Wednesday’s Cabinet session, the National Bank of Slovakia will make sure that the law is respected by its financial supervision. According to Kazimir, the central bank will decide how it will conduct the supervision. For each violation of the law, banks should be fined EUR 330,000 and EUR 660,000 for a repeated violation. “Banks have to realize that they would violate the law for which they would be sanctioned,” Kazimir added.
Prime Minister Robert Fico argues that banks have been posting record-high profits and have to participate in consolidation of public funds, too. According to him, it is immoral if they avoided it. Fico reminded that the government has not yet taken any action against the banking sector. “We can bite, too”, Fico warned. He pointed out that the state-run nuclear decommissioning company Jadrova a Vyradovacia Spolocnost (JAVYS) is closing its bank accounts in private banks and going instead to the state-run State Treasury.
The bill increasing the special levy for banks is in the second reading in Parliament. Based on the draft amendment on the special levy on certain financial institutions, with effectiveness from the last quarter of this year, the basis for calculating the levy will be widened to also include retail deposits, whereby banks will have to pay the special levy. The law itself should come into force from September 1, 2012.
SITA