By Meena Kar
Washington, May 5, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Tuesday urged Congress to support his proposal which asks the government to impose a tax on the big financial institutions. According to Timothy F. Geithner the tax will stop the banks from reckless money lending and will save the government from any such further crisis. However, the plan has faced some questions from the skeptics.

According to the plan of Timothy F. Geithner the financial institutions will have to pay a fee for the bailouts. The fees will be reportedly $90 billion which will be levied over a period of 10 years. This according to him will help to stabilize not only the banking system but also help the Government’s Trouble Asset Relief program (TARP) to recover fully the bailout amount. The Treasury Secretary also said that the money that will come from the fee will help the government to overcome the deficit that was incured by the 2008 financial crisis.

Though the proposal of taxing the banks has not been totally rejected by congress it has none the less faced many questions. American Bankers Association officials and the Financial Services Roundtable during Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing opposed the proposal. However, Senator Max Baucus, the Democrat from Montana who is also the Chairman of the Finance Committee said that it comes not as a surprise that such a proposal will be criticized by the financial institutions. He said that the Committee will need to understand the position of the banks and design the tax in such a way that it is able to achieve its purpose.