Greek Parliament passes amendment on bank tax credit
The Greek Parliament on Thursday passed with a majority vote an amendment tabled by the Finance ministry on Greek banks’ tax credit.
The amendment was presented procedurally overdue, causing a strong reaction by opposition political parties in Parliament.
Speaking during a parliament debate, Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis said that from a sum of 10 billion euros of tax credit acknowledged by the government following the PSI program and the banks’ losses, a total of around 3.0 billion euros was officially acknowledged as the four systemic banks’ supervisory capital, ahead of a stress test round.
He added that the amendment was mostly theoretical: “In the extreme case that in the next 30 years banks won’t present any profits, the state will pay the related sum with the tax credit.”
The Greek FinMin was adamant in stating that “this money is not free. Banks will have to deliver shares of equal value to the state”, while he noted that Greek banks were becoming more attractive, probably raising the future price of selling the state’s equity stakes in them and reducing the possibility of activating the 11.4 bln euros of reserve capital held by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund.
