Socialists Propose Imposing Special Tax On Firms “Profiting” From State Orders

(MTI) – The opposition Socialist Party wants the government to impose a special tax on firms which generate “extra profits” on the back of orders from the state.

Sandor Burany, a party lawmaker, told a news conference on Saturday, that the party’s proposals were contained in a bill to be submitted to parliament.

He said part of the aim of the Socialist bill is to stop ruling Fidesz moves to retroactively tax companies. He cited the recent dispute between the government and the European Commission centred around road builders.

According to recent reports, the commission is set to fine Hungary between 70 and 90 billion forints (EUR 226-290m) for what it claims were discriminative restrictions in some of the state’s road-construction tenders.

According to press reports, legislation is in the pipeline for slapping a 15 percent special tax on the net revenue of companies that won state road construction contracts worth more than 100 million forints in the past seven years.

Burany said the Socialists were worried that “innocent” companies would get caught in the crosshairs of the Fidesz retroactive tax.

He said it was inconceivable in a democratic rules-governed country that such measures would be enacted which discriminated against job-creating companies.

Instead, companies close to Fidesz that have won state orders in the past five years should pay a special tax on profit exceeding 100 million forints if this accounts for more than half of total revenues, he said.

Photo: Zoltan Mathe

Source: http://english.mti.hu/