Finance Minister: Rebooting economy requires cutting red tape

Cutting red tape related to jobs administration will accompany measures to reduce the tax burden when it comes to rebooting the economy, Mihály Varga, the finance minister, said after Thursday’s meeting of the operative board for protecting the economy.

Varga said at a press conference that tax and jobs-related bureaucracy placed a big burden on businesses, and better use of data administration could be harnessed to reduce the associated burdens.

Online invoicing is already up and running, and the tax authority will prepare VAT returns by next year, Varga said.

The reduction of the social contribution tax will leave 160 billion forints with employers and the temporary exemption from the itemised tax on small firms is helping to keep 100,000 people in employment, he said, adding that 20 types of public burden have been lifted since 2010.

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László Parragh, President of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK), said it was right that the state should not require companies to hand over data that the state already possesses. He welcomed the changes and noted that less red tape helped to boost competitiveness.

Parragh added, however, that even more could be done to reduce burdens.

The board also discussed tourism. Zoltán Güller, the head of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, said the sector had got over the worst of the crisis and visits to the countryside were approaching last year’s level. The recovery, he added, was thanks to the government’s swift response to the crisis. Invigorating tourism and hospitality should no longer be a budgetary matter but a legislative one, he said.

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Güller said air travel was also beginning to recover and arrivals at Hungary’s airports in August were expected to be 80 percent of last August’s level.

Source: MTI