Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday
defended the 40% windfall tax that the government has decided to
impose on banks' surplus profits, a surprise move that led to
market turmoil on Tuesday.
"At the last cabinet meeting (on Monday) we approved many
important measures," Meloni said in a video message.
"The most important regards taxation of the unjust (profit)
margins of the banks.
"The money will be used to finance measures to support families
and businesses as they go through a difficult time due to the
high cost of money".
The Italian banks lost close to nine billion euros in
stock-market capitalization on Tuesday after the government's
surprise announcement of the windfall tax.
They recouped around four billion euros in early trading on
Wednesday after the economy and finance ministry said that the
new tax it would be capped to 0.1% of the institutes' assets
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