After the controversy comes the modification. The Italian Government has rectified the preparation of the extraordinary tax on banks to limit the amount to be paid by the entities, and will also give them the option to be released from payment in case they expand their capital reserves.
The proposed amendments, which still need to be approved by Parliament, limit the levy to 0.26% of risk-weighted assets at the individual level, instead of 0.1% of the bank's total assets. Likewise, banks will be able to avoid paying the fee if they allocate up to two and a half times the amount due to strengthen their CET1 capital ratio, the highest quality. However, in case of subsequent use of these reserves for the distribution of dividends, the tax plus the maturity of the debt must be paid.
The rate will continue to apply to 40% of banks' extraordinary profits, measured by the differential of net interest income between 2021 and 2023 with a profit of more than 10%, collects Europa Press.
The new amendment has been designed so that it reports to the State an amount equivalent to that provided for the original tax, so the Executive of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni anticipates revenues close to 3,000 million euros.
In this way, the measure points to a compromise within the right-wing coalition that supports the Government of Meloni, since the minority partner of the same, Forza Italia, had positioned itself against the tax.
Likewise, in the middle of this month, the European Central Bank (ECB) questioned different aspects of the tax, considering that the tax could jeopardize a smooth transmission of monetary policy measures, adding that the amount of the tax could not be proportional to the profitability of the entities or affect all equally.