Press release -
The risk tax: Exempting municipal collaboration is the right way to go
The Riksdag today decided on the Government's bill on a so-called risk tax to be paid by banks and other credit institutions.
The decision was to adopt the bill. The adoption is however combined with three sharply worded declarations. The first one concerns municipal collaboration.
The Riksdag states that the Government, no later than 1 October 2022, shall present a proposal to ensure that municipal collaboration through Kommuninvest is no longer targeted by the tax from 1 January 2023.
The Riksdag also states that the Government, as soon as possible, shall present a proposal to compensate the municipal sector for the extra costs, which will weigh on social welfare, that the temporary taxation of municipal collaboration through Kommuninvest will entail.
No counter-proposals were tabled against this.
– We would certainly have preferred Kommuninvest, a low-risk institute, not to be taxed at all. But in this situation, we appreciate that the Riksdag, after a thorough analysis, has come to the same conclusions as we have and now clarifies that the Government must change track when it comes to municipal collaboration, says Linda Frohm, Vice Chairman of Kommuninvest Cooperative Society.
– Even if the most reasonable line would have been to make a full reassessment and introduce the tax only in 2023, we are still positive about the work done by the Riksdag. We expect the Government, in accordance with the Riksdag's decision, to quickly and efficiently create solutions to ensure that municipal cooperation is not targeted by the tax after 2022 and that the municipal sector in the meantime is compensated for the extra costs. We are ready to cooperate constructively in order to find workable solutions, says Göran Färm, Chairman of Kommuninvest Cooperative Society.
Tomas Werngren, CEO, tel: +46 70 645 06 69, e-mail: tomas.werngren@kommuninvest.se
David Ljung, Head of Communications, tel: +46 73 068 45 45, e-mail: david.ljung@kommuninvest.se
Topics
Kommuninvest is a municipal cooperation for efficient and sustainable financing of housing, infrastructure, schools, hospitals etc. Together we get better loan terms than each one individually. Since the start in 1986, the Kommuninvest collaboration has helped reduce the local government sector’s borrowing costs by many billion SEK. Currently, 294 municipalities and regions are members of this voluntary cooperation. With a balance sheet total of approx. SEK 550 billion (USD ~63 billion), Kommuninvest is the largest lender to the local government sector and one of the ten largest credit institutions in Sweden. The head office is located in Örebro.
