PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION ONCE AGAIN PROPOSES TO INCREASE THE PROFIT TAX FOR BANKS FROM 12 TO 18%

The parliamentary opposition represented by deputies of the Communist and Socialist Bloc has once again proposed to increase the profit tax for banks from 12% to 18%.

As reported by an accredited correspondent of INFOTAG in parliament, during Thursday's session, Deputy Oleg Reidman proposed including in the parliament's agenda a draft law on increasing the profit tax for 11 commercial banks in the Republic of Moldova.

“In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the profits of commercial banks, which, in our view, is not related to improving the structure of their revenues, introducing new products, or improving the quality of their work. Instead, it is a result of the monetary policy of the National Bank and the government,” said the MP.

Therefore, the BCSP faction proposed including the relevant draft law on the agenda, but the proposal of the opposition bloc was not supported by deputies of the ruling party “Action and Solidarity” (PAS).

According to INFOTAG news agency, the proposal of BCSP deputies would allow to raise several hundred million lei to the budget with a single hand vote.

According to the data of the National Bank of Moldova, the net profit of banks based on financial results for 2023, after paying a profit tax of 12%, amounted to 4.12 billion lei, which is 12.5% more than in 2022, and 1.9 billion lei more than in 2021.

This means that the 11 operating commercial banks in Moldova paid a total profit tax of 494 million lei.

NBM data shows that in 2023, four systemic commercial banks in Moldova earned 3.63 billion lei in profit, which is equivalent to 88% of the total profit in the banking system.