Orban Says Internet Tax Cannot Be Introduced in Current Form

Budapest, October 31 (MTI) – The telecom tax cannot be extended to the internet in its current form, the 2015 budget will take Hungary closer to full employment and Hungary’s secure gas supply is guaranteed, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said today.

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Orban told public radio Kossuth that the tax bill currently in front of parliament needs to be amended.

The new tax on the internet cannot be introduced in its current form because “the debate has gone askew” and “a common basis is missing”, with the people seeing an internet tax where the government only wanted a technical amendment in order to extend the telecom tax. As the public now questions the rationale behind the whole thing, “under these circumstances nothing can be introduced,” the prime minister added.

The government must accept that the reasonability of every measure must be assessed and if the public not only opposes a measure but finds it unreasonable, then it should not be taken, Orban said.

“We are not Communists, we are not governing against the people but together with the people,” he added.

After the holidays, in mid-January, a national consultation will have to be launched on the internet, including its financial aspects, he said.

“It is necessary to find where the huge profit from internet services goes and whether parts of it could be kept in Hungary and channeled to the budget,” Orban said.

The government’s aim to make broadband internet available in every Hungarian home by 2020 is unchanged, he said. Agreements with the service providers have already been signed and the several hundred billion forint programme will “take Hungary to the vanguards of Europe”, he added.

The government earlier proposed a 150 forints per gigabyte tax on internet traffic payable by internet service providers. A modification to the tax bill would cap the tax at a monthly 700 forints for households and 5,000 forints for businesses.

Orban also said that next year’s budget will take the country closer to full employment. The goal is that there should be no need for income subsidies by the year 2018, he added.