Tax Cuts Needed

Created: 6th November, 2007 16:40 | Last updated: 8th November, 2007 19:56	print	send

The leader of the parliamentary group of Fidesz stated that the government's determination to cut taxes lasted only until last year's elections as several measures increasing the tax burden have been carried out since then. "Members of the incumbent [socialist-liberal] government have not been serious about tax-cuts for a moment", said Mr Navracsics, arguing that such measures would indeed be necessary, not only in the future but also as a solution to the current difficulties.

Speaking of the troubling economic indicators, Mr Navracsics highlighted that 3 million people in Hungary lived below the poverty line, while half of the entire population lived near that level. Three-quarters of Hungarians dispose of no savings at all, while the level of loans outstanding of Hungarian households increases by some 360 millions of euros on a monthly level. The level of indebtedness has by now reached Western-European standards even as the purchasing power of wages is a mere one third of them. The level of unemployment is over 400,000 while 125,000 people have not been employed for more than a year. Under the age of 25, the number of people unemployed is 75,000. The level of inflation is three times that of the EU average whereas real wages have fallen by 6.5% this year.

The leader of the parliamentary group of Fidesz announced the party's policy proposal to adjust the tax rate to that of the inflation, thereby raising the current level of annual income taxed at a rate of 18% from 6800€ to 7200€. Mr Navracsics has called the proposals of governing SZDSZ to raise this level to 7600€ "insincere" since the liberal party gave up its recent promises to support the tax proposals put forward by Fidesz.