Batkovsky on Kaczynski’s tax “threat”: the government encourages banks to raise interest rates on deposits

The government prefers to use “soft mechanisms” and encourage the banking sector to raise interest rates on deposits, but the words of the PiS chief on Saturday are a clear signal to the sector, Deputy Finance Minister Peter Batkovsky told PAP Biznes. On Saturday, PiS Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said that if banks did not raise interest rates on deposits, their profits would be taxed.

“We encourage banks to raise interest rates, we stimulate them with bonds. I think the CEO said that very well — if the banks don’t adequately respond to customer expectations, we’ll look at it. We’re encouraging that with our competition at Batkowski said.

Asked whether a new tax could emerge, the Deputy Minister said: “We’ll see, we’ll wait. At the moment, we are implementing a credit vacation, one month after the new retail bonds are put into operation, I think it will be time to summarize these measures soon. ” .

Batkovsky noted that the PiS chief’s words are a “clear signal to the banks.”

“We must also remember that the banks are before providing assistance to borrowers and we will see how they will behave correctly here. We prefer to talk to the sector and I hope the sector will speak too” – he added.

On Saturday, the head of the PiS, Jaroslav Kaczynski, said that “banks should think carefully” and radically raise interest rates on deposits. He added that if they failed to do so, the government would have to tax their earnings.

“I do not want to decide on behalf of the bankers, but it should be a strong percentage, not at the level of inflation, but in order for people to feel that this money will lose much less when it is in the bank” – emphasized the PiS head.

“If not, we will have to tax those profits and that’s it,” he declared.

He added that this issue is the subject of official talks by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and he himself, using the position of party leader, is speaking in private.

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