Economics
Czech Banks Avoid New Tax by Yielding to Premier's Fund Plan
- Premier seeks initial 6 billion koruna from four biggest banks
- Lenders welcome Babis’s proposal for national development fund
This article is for subscribers only.
Czech banks have agreed to contribute a modest portion of their profits to a national development fund to avoid a threat of special taxes that earlier afflicted their eastern European peers.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Monday he wants the units of Societe Generale SA, Erste Group Bank AG, KBC Groep NV, and UniCredit SpA, to jointly pay an initial 6 billion koruna ($260 million) to the proposed fund in 2020 that would help finance public-investment projects. He wants others to join in as contributors later, after the government and the four biggest lenders work out the details.