Hungarian authorities announce tax hikes due to growing budget deficit
The government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced special taxes on banks and a number of other industries to plug the growing holes in the national budget. Against this backdrop, the stock market of the European republic and its currency, the forint, have begun to fall, writes Bloomberg.
Last month, Hungary was among seven countries the EU found to have excessive budget deficits. New data released on Monday, July 8, showed that the situation is getting worse.
The deficit reached 2.66 trillion forints ($7.3 billion) in the first six months, more than planned for the entire year. In connection with this, the cabinet will begin to take a share from banks’ foreign exchange transactions and raise the transaction tax. In total, the authorities want to receive about a billion dollars from the new fees, although they had previously promised to reduce taxes.
Orban had previously disclaimed responsibility for the economic situation in Hungary. He said that the general decline in the European economy was due to the erroneous actions of the EU leadership. In particular, he blamed Brussels for the failure to raise taxes, which resulted in an outflow of investment.
On July 1, Hungary assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months. Orban first went on a tour, during which he visited Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing, the summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTG) in Azerbaijan, and now wants to go to the United States. At the same time, the EU points out that the head of Hungary does not have a mandate to make visits on behalf of the Council of the European Union.
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