Govt Supports HUF 700 Cap on Internet Tax, Says Varga – Opposition Reaction

Budapest, October 27 (MTI) – The government supports a proposal put forward by the ruling Fidesz party on capping the tax to be levied on internet traffic at 700 forints or 2.3 euros a month, Economy Minister Mihaly Varga said.

The tax would not be payable by subscribers but by telecoms, Varga said in parliament on Monday. The four largest telcos in Hungary generated 75 billion forints in profit in 2013, he said. Varga said in connection with a mass demonstration on Sunday against the tax after which the Fidesz headquarters were vandalised that “violence is completely unacceptable.”

Jozsef Tobias, head of the opposition Socialist Party, said that the internet tax was not acceptable in any format. Such a tax would work against modernisation and would hinder the construction of a knowledge-based society.

The radical nationalist Jobbik party also voiced protest against the planned tax, moreover, it proposed that internet service should be offered free of charge. Deputy group leader Gergely Farkas proposed a five-party dialogue on the matter.