Miller criticizes "unpatriotic" banks for offering shelters from savings tax

Prime Minister Leszek Miller yesterday charged the country's mainly foreign-owned banks with anti-Polish behavior, accusing them of trying to sabotage a key tax in the government's tough economic program. Miller said savings deals being promoted by banks to avoid a new tax were unpatriotic and anti-Polish. "I expected that banks, which received tremendous state help at one time, would now be our partner in difficult economic decisions. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case," Miller told public radio yesterday. One plan for raising badly-needed extra cash is a 20% tax on savings interest. But Poland's increasingly competitive private banks have been aggressively promoting services that would water down state gains, urging savers to deposit their money quickly before a legal deadline likely to be the end of this month. The government hopes to bring in an additional $1 billion in revenues from its tax-raising measures next year. (Reuters)