The Hungarian government has asked the European Central Bank to evaluate an amendment proposal seeking to extend a planned financial transactions duty to the National Bank of Hungary, ECB’s press department told MTI on Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by news portal index.hu.
The ECB has received the request, press officer Eszter Miltenyi said, without indicating when the European bank would complete its report.
Hungary’s central bank governor Andras Simor on Monday called the amendment proposal “illegal, dangerous and unintelligible”.
Antal Rogan, group leader of the ruling Fidesz party, said in reaction to Simor’s remarks that if commercial banks are required pay the duty then it would be hard to explain why the central bank should be an exception.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday announced plans to cut taxes and red tape for small companies and for employers who take on under-25s, seniors or unskilled workers. The HUF 300bn action plan would be financed partly from extending the transactions duty to specified deposit transactions of the central bank and to the State Treasury.
