Press Advisories

20. 10. 201018:30

Hungarian prime minister: brutal taxes a must in order to reduce debts

The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has come to visit his Czech counterpart, Petr Nečas.

The two prime ministers discussed the current financial situation in Hungary, the energy sector, and Hungary’s upcoming presidency of the EU Council.

“The events of recent years in Hungary have been a disaster. Indebtedness of 80%. We have derailed economic growth and the birth rate is shrinking. Now we need to cut government debt, make a parallel reduction in the national budget deficit, and initiate and maintain economic growth,” said Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán as he spelt out the steps that need to be taken.

According to the Hungarian prime minister, governments are now engaged in a rather peculiar experiment. “We are introducing a brutal tax on banks, the energy sector, and large business networks. On the other hand, we need to lower the taxes paid by some companies and provide people with the incentive they need to work. We must establish a uniform tax, maintain investor confidence and attract more new investment to Hungary. We Hungarians are doing the impossible, and that is my policy,” said Orbán.

High debts have forced Hungary to halve the number of members of parliament, reduce the number of local authority representatives, halve the number of ministries, and make radical changes in government, and now they have set their sights on overhauling the health and education system.

“We have exchanged views on trends in enhanced economic cooperation. Our two countries hold similar positions on fiscal harmonization, we do not want the unification of taxes, and we have similar views on national budget policies. We do not want national governments to become the postman of the European Union. We do not want to place our governments in a position where they have to submit draft EU budgets to parliament,” added the Czech prime minister Petr Nečas.