Monday, 17 June 2013 21:01
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
BUDAPEST: Hungary's government announced on Monday another round of austerity measures in the form of tax hikes even though its economic and budgetary prospects are looking brighter.The moves include raising a tax on financial transactions to 0.6 percent from 0.3 percent and a levy on financial transfers to 0.3 percent from 0.2 percent, Economy Minister Mihaly Varga said.A telecoms tax was also increased to three forints (0.0069 euros, $0.0046) per phone call or text message from two forints, while the tax rate for mining companies moved up to 16 percent from 12 percent.In May the European Commission proposed removing Hungary from its special budgetary monitoring procedure, where it has been since joining the European Union in 2004, after progress cutting its deficit."We are happy to exit the excessive deficit procedure, but we have to build on our achievements and look at the deficit long term," government spokesman Andras Giro-Szasz told ...