BUDAPEST, Hungary, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Hungary has backed off from a controversial plan to tax Internet use.
The 150 forint (61 cent)-per-gigabyte tax on Internet use -- to be paid by service providers but presumably recovered from customers -- caused street protests by hundreds of thousands of Hungarians in the past week. Demonstrators threw computer parts Sunday at the door of the ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and a government offer to put a monthly cap on the tax did not placate the protesters.
The plan was derided by the European Union.
A statement from Orban's office Friday said:
"Prime Minister Orbán stated on Kossuth Radio's '180 Minutes' program that the extension of the telecommunications tax cannot be introduced in its current form, adding that the tax legislation submitted to Parliament has to be amended. The Prime Minister pointed out that the process cannot go ahead as 'the debate has gone astray' and 'a common basis is missing', with the people envisioning an Internet tax."
Hungary already has a tax on per-call telephone use.
Oban's comments indicate the government has not abandoned the proposed Internet tax, merely offered a delay in discussing it further. The Fidesz party has said another tax was necessary to balance Hungary's budget; Orban said, in the radio interview, a "national consultation" on the issue would begin in January.
