Poland Pushes Ahead With Bank-Tax Increase to Help Ailing Budget

Poland’s government approved a plan to increase corporate income taxes on lenders to shore up its budget, rebuffing concerns about the levy’s impact on the availability of credit and banking costs.

The Finance Ministry plans to raise an additional 11.3 billion zloty ($3.1 billion) over the next two years from the levy, as it seeks to bolster the budget amid record defense spending in reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

News of the planned levy in August pummeledrevved-up banking stocks and raised concerns about the fallout from years of fiscal largess. Since the announcement, the WIG-Bank ...