It would appear the IMF's dirty little fingerprints [3] are all over this latest piece of legislation in Ukraine. The Ukraine Finance Ministry is proposing to take a very-similar-to-Cyprus approach to bailing in its despositors:
- *UKRAINE PROPOSES NEW TAX ON DEPOSITS EXCEEDING 100,000 HRYVNIA
- *UKRAINE TAX PROPOSAL WOULD INCLUDE 1.5% OF ALL DEPOSITS
This would appear a measure designed to stabilize the budget for potential IMF negotiations and fits perfectly with what the IMF has consistently hinted as the next steps for many nations [4].
This is further to the news last week that a 25% deposit "tax" was being considered...
Via Tax News, [5]
Ukraine's parliament is to consider draft laws which would ban foreign-currency bank deposits and introduce a 25% tax on interest on deposits in banks and other financial institutions in circumstances where the interest received is more than 5% above the rate set by the National Bank of Ukraine.
The proposed amendments to banking and tax legislation were put forward by Yevhen Sihal, who is a member of the country's ruling Party of Regions. In an explanatory note submitted with the drafts, he argued that the higher tax rate will encourage consumer spending, reduce the cost of business loans, and provide extra funding for the country's Pension Fund. Sihal also explained that his tax proposal is based on the experience of the Russian Federation.
Sihal's proposals have united the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the country's Communist Party in opposition. The NBU was quoted as saying that it was concerned about the politicization of economic issues, and that its policy was to increase the deposit base in line with international practice, while Communist leader Petro Symonenko suggested that the owners of large deposits will simply move their funds abroad to avoid the tax.
We assume, just as with Cyprus, that the big money has already left the building leaving small businesses and the average joe to foot the IMF-demanding bill (for the good of the country) to get their bailout funds.