CIIR promotes the 'Tobin Tax'

The Catholic Institute for International relations is calling on people to write to their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) urging them to support 'Tobin Tax' - in the run-up to next week's elections. Tobin Tax, the more popular term for the Currency Transaction Tax (CTT), is a powerful tool for economic stability, particularly at this time of EU enlargement. The trade in money is the richest market in the world and the buying and selling of currencies such as sterling, Swiss francs and the euro is valued in billions every day. Tobin Tax, levied on the pound, the euro and other European currencies, could generate billions of dollars worth of revenues. It raises revenue by taxing every currency transaction in the wholesale, rather than the retail, foreign exchange market. Banks and hedge funds who trade currencies in high volumes would be subject to the tax, but not ordinary consumers changing money to go on holiday. A base rate tax as small as a tiny fraction of 1 per cent (such as one hundredth of 1 per cent) would generate billions of dollars of revenue every year. In 2000, the French Ministry of Finance calculated that if the European Union alone implemented Tobin Tax it would generate 22 billion euro (14.65 billion pounds sterling) per year. And if the European parliament passed Tobin Tax, it could help raise billions of pounds for international development. This would be a major victory for the development community and would pave the way to a future where the tax is introduced globally. For more information visit: www.tobintax.org.uk or call 020 7227 4300. Source: CIIR