Pellegrini: Transaction Tax Should Be Scrapped

Bratislava, April 14 (TASR) - The transaction tax, which has been in effect since April 1, should be scrapped, President Peter Pellegrini told the Vizio Energo conference in Bratislava on Monday. "Tax should always be paid on something, either on profits, turnover or added value. I graduated in economics, but I really can't answer people, citizens, my friends who ask me why, when they send a salary to their employee, or they return an excess tax payment to an employee, they still have to pay tax on it," said Pellegrini. According to the head of state, this tax makes no economic sense. "I think that if the state wants to tax something more, it should introduce a greater progressive element in taxation or tax some other segments that aren't subject to taxation at the moment, or tax them more significantly," he said. "Transaction tax as such doesn't make sense to me in the long term. I think that it should be cancelled, and if this caused problems in the state budget, it should be replaced with some other tax. It's hard for me to explain to people today why they have to pay transaction tax. Just explaining that it's because of the condition in which the government inherited public finances from the previous one isn't enough for them," added the president. ko/df