Hungary govt plans healthcare tax hike - paper
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Hungary’s new government plans to raise employees’ healthcare payments and is considering a basic health fee which together could generate at least 280 billion forints ($1.38 billion) in revenue, daily Nepszabadsag said.
The government intends to raise employees’ healthcare contributions to 7 percent from 3, and to charge a basic health fee of minimum 5,000 forints per month for everybody, the paper reported on Thursday, without disclosing its sources.
Other tax hike ideas considered include the raising of the lower value added tax (VAT) rate to 20 percent from 15, the introduction of a 3 percentage point extra “solidarity tax” on companies, and a tax on real estates, the paper said.
Those three items could together raise a further 415 billion forints in tax revenues annually, Nepszabadsag calculated.
Reforming an inefficient health system is one of the government’s priorities alongside making meaningful cuts in the budget deficit, which is the biggest in the European Union relative to the size of the economy, at 6.1 percent of GDP.
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany’s new Socialist government is expected to submit its government programme on May 30 and take office on June 14.
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