Hungary’s Finance Minister Varga: Bank Tax May Be Redesigned
- 8 Jul 2014 9:00 AM
The government is mulling a rethink of Hungary’s sectoral tax on banks, Mihály Varga, the economy minister, told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió. “I don’t exclude the possibility of revising or rethinking the banking tax, since banks are going to be assuming a heavy burden to compensate clients, but now is not the time for this.”
He noted that the European Union had told Budapest should phase out sectoral taxes such as the banking one, adding however that the taxes were part and parcel of government efforts to stabilise the country’s economy.
“I do not believe that we should accept Brussels’ position concerning this issue,” he said, rejecting scrapping the tax outright.
Antal Rogán, leader of the ruling Fidesz party’s parliamentary group, told HírTV at the weekend that in December banks must convert foreign currency mortgages into forints.
The conversion will be around 11 billion euros’ worth. He added the government may consider assuming some of the costs.
Parliament on Friday approved a law for compensating troubled forex borrowers, which, the central bank estimates, could cost the financial sector 600 to 900 billion forints (EUR 1.9-2.9).
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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