The Government outlines the details of the new banking tax and asks the sector for "responsibility"

MADRID, 19 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, has affirmed that the Executive is already outlining "the rigorous technical and legal details" of the new temporary and extraordinary tax for banks, while at the same time asking banks to " be responsible" with the country, after having indicated that the way out of the previous economic crisis involved the 'rescue' of the sector.

Rodríguez recalled, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, that the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, is scheduled to meet this Friday with representatives of the banking sector to address the new temporary tax announced by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, last week during the Debate on the State of the Nation. The Executive anticipates that this measure will last for two years and that it will involve a collection of 1,500 million per year.

Thus, Rodríguez has advanced that "the details of technical and legal rigor are being outlined" and has affirmed that the Government is "very clear" about its work to change the social reality, which implies an exit from the crisis "diametrically opposed" to the carried out by the PP in the previous crisis.

"What the PP did in the Government was to deliver everyone's money to the bank, up to 60,000 million euros. On this occasion, what the Government asks the bank is that it be responsible with the country and that, in a time of rate increases and, therefore, benefits, contribute to this effort so that we can make a fairer redistribution of burdens and improve the lives of Spaniards", assured Rodríguez, before recalling that "we are all banking customers.

The spokeswoman has also highlighted that the Government "has shown" to work "always from dialogue" and has recalled the agreements "that have improved the lives" of citizens, such as the pacts in the field of unions and businessmen or the "large majorities " in Parliament to pass laws that "allow the country to move forward.

The employers' associations of the sector, the main financial entities and representatives of the Bank of Spain are invited to this Friday's meeting, which will be headed by Nadia Calviño. It should be remembered that this new tax, like the one proposed for energy companies, will be aimed at companies that invoice more than 1,000 million euros per year.

Although the details of this tax that the Government plans to promote through a bill are still unknown, the newspaper 'El País' has advanced that the Ministry of Finance would be studying imposing a 5% tax on commissions and interest charged banking to customers.

It is, as Treasury sources confirmed yesterday to Europa Press, an option that is being considered, but work and design continue, so nothing has been finalized.

What the Executive has already advanced is that the norm that will regulate the temporary taxes on energy companies and financial entities will include the prohibition that these new taxes are passed on in the final prices that citizens bear.

In addition, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) will be provided with all the functions to monitor and apply sanctions in the event that any company deviates from the legality

Some representatives of the sector have already publicly shown their position on this issue. The president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, has affirmed that the banking tax could end up "negatively affecting" consumption, investment and collection, and defends that "the best way to collect more taxes is for the economy to grow".

For her part, the president of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), Alejandra Kindelán, stressed that the new tax "hampers the ability of banks to finance themselves" in the market and, therefore, to give credit to families. and companies, while pointing out that the market's reaction to the new rate reflects "how confidence in the sector and in the country is affected by measures like this one."

In addition, the spokesman for the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), José Luis Martínez Campuzano, has criticized "the legal improvisation" of this tax, which "distorts the market".

CECA, for its part, has pointed out that the new tax is a measure that "does not contribute to harmonizing tax regimes" within the Banking Union, although it has stressed the need to know the details of the measure "in order to make an assessment more informed."