Plenary rejects bank windfall tax proposal following tie in MP votes

With 25-25 tie, and with the deciding vote coming from House President Annita Demetriou, AKEL’s bill proposing windfall taxes for banks has been rejected by the Plenary.

After a debate that lasted over three hours, sometimes in a confrontational climate, the Plenary voted against the proposal, to the relief of the financial sector and the economy.

Out of a total of 54 MPs present, AKEL MPs (15), EDEK MPs (3), ELAM MPs (3), Greens-Citizens' Cooperation MPs (2), Zacharias Koulias and Kostis Efstathiou voted in favor of the proposed law.

The 15 DISY MPs present (Averof Neophytou and Kyriakos Hadjiannis were absent), six DIKO MPs, three of the four DIPA MPs and independent MP Alexandra Attalidou voted against it.

DIKO MPs Pavlos Mylonas and Christos Orphanides, DIPA MP Michalis Giakoumis and independent MP Andreas Themistocleous abstained.

In the previous vote on the amendment submitted by AKEL, which concerned the transfer of control over the data that banks would submit on profits from the Tax Department to the Central Bank, the variation in the vote concerned only the number of abstentions, since two MPs did not take a position.

Upon completion of the voting process, AKEL attempted to dispute the result, with the party's parliamentary representative, George Loucaides, requesting that the process be repeated by a show of hands. This request, however, was rejected by the President of the House, Annita Demetriou.

There had been intense background activity throughout the day, which ultimately - as it turned out - was reflected in the way the final result was formed.

Starting with the leaders' morning meeting, a proposal to postpone the discussion was put on the table.

The information brought three DIKO MPs, Zacharias Koulias, Pavlos Mylonas and Christos Orphanides, to differ from the party's official position in favor of no to the proposed law, which, added to the absence of two DISY MPs, appear to create a majority for approval of AKEL's proposed law.

At the start of the debate, a request for adjournment was submitted by ELAM, which was however rejected, as both AKEL and DISY were against it.

In view of this, the discussion proceeded for over three hours, with the leaders or representatives of the parties developing their arguments, either for or against the proposal.

The rejected AKEL bill provided for the establishment of a new legislative framework for the imposition of an extraordinary solidarity fee for credit institutions of 5% on the unexpected or windfall profits of credit institutions.

The aim of the proposal, according to its rapporteur Stefanos Stefanou, was "to eliminate inequalities and ensure a fairer distribution of the impacts that have been caused among social strata, which have resulted from the rise in inflation and the successive increases in interest rates."

(Source: InBusinessNews)