MADRID--Spain's Budget Minister said Wednesday the country's banks will pa
a new tax this year equal to up to 0.2% of the value of their deposits.
Speaking in parliament, Cristobal Montoro sought to clarify that the new
tax would not bite into Spanish deposits themselves. Instead, banks would pay
the levy based on the overall deposit base of Spain's banking system. It would
be paid as part of the taxes the banks usually pay.
Spain's new bank tax differs from one included in the international bailou
proposal for Cyprus, which would diminish the deposits themselves. On Tuesday,
the Cypriot parliament rejected the proposal amid widespread public protest.
Mr. Montoro on Wednesday also emphasized that Spain is not planning a tax
that would directly eat into depositors' savings.
Spain's new levy supercedes some taxes on banks some regional governments
had imposed in the last decade.
A spokesman for the Budget Ministry said Wednesday that after a court
declared the regional bank taxes legal, the central government decided last
year to institute a similar tax nationwide. Some of the funds from the new
central-government tax will be used to compensate the regional governments for
the revenue they stand to lose by seeing their own bank taxes superceded, the
spokesman said.