PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s proposal for a tax on financial transactions would not apply to bonds issues by governments because states need to be able to finance themselves, said France’s Finance Minister Francois Baroin on Sunday.
France plans plow ahead with its own transaction tax even as other European nations are taking longer to agree on how to implement the measure.
“The tax would apply to shares and derivatives but would naturally exclude government bonds since we are in a period where we need investors,” said Baroin in a French televised interview.
The details on when such a tax would take effect will be decided when the draft law is written in February, he added.
(Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey)
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Actually it is because buying Euro gov’t bonds is not speculation but a form of mental illness and as such cannot be discriminated against under European law.