In addition, he said the government will suspend all transfers to private pension funds and prepare a bill this year on a return to the state pension system.

Speaking at Buda’s Millenáris Centre, Or-bán said a second economic action plan will have to be launched. Labour and production will be given priority over speculation, while taxation, the structure of the economy and an entire outlook will have to be radically trans-formed and this is why it is necessary to launch the second action plan.

The state is expected to collect an annual Ft 61 billion from the telecoms sector, Ft 70 billion from the energy sector and Ft 30 billion from hypermarket chains in each of 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Declaring that the spending side of the pension system will have to be reviewed, Or-bán said the state will no longer transfer the monthly Ft 30 billion to private pension funds from November 1 of this year until December 31, 2011. The nation cannot afford to make these transfers during a time of crisis, he said.

In other moves, state-funded development projects will be reconsidered, and the cabinet will re-negotiate all public-private partnership contracts and will not sign any new ones.

A new, proportionate, family-based tax regime will be introduced next year, in a document “the size of a beer mat” that will support both labour and families, Orbán promised.

In defending the changes, Orbán said Hungary faces more difficulties than usual, such as a serious economic crisis, the erro-neous economic policy of the past eight years, and a toxic sludge spill. “We are now consciously facing up to problems; the coun-try is not like it was a year ago.”

Source: Hungary Around the Clock.

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