Giorgia Meloni Photo: Marco Iacobucci/SOPA Images/Shut / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
The government in Rome announced its intention to collect billions of euros from banks by increasing the profit tax and postponing certain tax credits, among other measures presented in this year's budget, writes Agerpres.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has defended her government's efforts to raise five billion euros from banks this year after lenders took advantage of extraordinary market conditions, Bloomberg reports.
“If out of the 44 billion euros of profits in 2025, they put about five billion euros at our disposal to help the weakest in society, then I think we can be satisfied and, at the end of the day, so can they,” Meloni is quoted as saying in an extract from a forthcoming book by author Bruno Vespa.
The government in Rome has announced its intention to raise billions of euros from banks by raising corporate tax and deferring certain tax credits, among other measures outlined in this year's budget.
Italian banks' profitability has soared in recent years after the European Central Bank ended a long period of negative interest rates.
Meloni first tried in 2023 to impose additional taxes on banks, but the effort failed, with markets entering a downward spiral.
Last year, the government in Rome reached an agreement with banks to freeze some of their tax credits, allowing Meloni to declare victory but keeping the measure largely revenue-neutral for banks.
The bank tax has also created tensions within the governing coalition, particularly between the League, a far-right nationalist party, and Forza Italia, a moderate, pro-business party founded by Silvio Berlusconi.
Just over the weekend, League leader Matteo Salvini said that “any further complaints from the banks would represent an extra billion that we will ask from them”, a sign of how the tensions around this file could continue.
Meloni designed his budget to support low-income and middle-class people, which would confirm him as prime minister in the next general election, which must be held in 2027 at the latest.
A two-percentage-point cut in income tax for some middle-income earners alone would cost nine billion euros over three years. In the same period, the government in Rome expects to raise around 11 billion euros from the banks.
