Gordon Brown's plan for global bank tax 'a step closer'
Gordon Brown is hoping the IMF will throw its weight behind plans for
a global bank tax. The world's economic powers appear to be moving
closer to a global bank tax in response to last year's crisis, Prime
Minister Gordon Brown suggested last week.
Brown has been a strong advocate of some form of co-ordinated levy on
the banks, which could bring in tens of billions of pounds a year from
the financial services sector worldwide to help stabilise the global
economy and contribute towards development.
He is understood to be hoping that the IMF will throw its weight
behind a global levy at its April meeting in Washington, and that a deal
can be concluded at the G20 summit in Canada in June.
In an interview with the Financial Times the PM indicated that he
believes opinion has shifted in favour of co-ordinated action as a
result of US President Barack Obama's move last month to impose a 90
billion-dollar levy on Wall Street banks.
'I'm interested in the way support is building up for international
action,' Brown told the FT. 'People are now prepared to consider the
best mechanism by which a levy could be raised.' At the G7 meeting of
finance ministers in St Andrews last November, Mr Brown floated
proposals for a form of 'Tobin tax' on financial transactions to create
'a better economic and social contract between financial institutions
and the public based on trust and a just distribution of risks and
rewards'.
* Brown's 'reign of terror' at Downing Street revealed in sensational
new book. The US swiftly indicated it was not ready to countenance a
day-to-day financial transaction tax, but British sources insisted that
this did not mean that a levy of some sort could not be agreed.
Alternative suggestions could include a tax on bank profits, turnover
or remuneration.
A coalition of charities, aid agencies, green groups and unions
yesterday called on all political parties to support a global 'Robin
Hood tax' on banks to help tackle the human damage caused by the global
economic crisis.
Backed by a film, directed by Richard Curtis and starring Bill Nighy,
the campaigners argued that a levy on transactions could raise billions
of pounds to fight poverty, protect public services and fight climate
change while making only a tiny impact on banks' profits.(Courtesy Daily
Mail)
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