* Tax plan triggered biggest demonstrations in years
* PM Orban says cannot proceed in face of public opposition
* Tax was catalyst for outpouring of anti-Orban feeling
* Orban opponents want him out, but majority backs him
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By Krizstina Than and Marton Dunai
BUDAPEST, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orban froze plans on Friday to impose a tax on Internet traffic,
climbing down in the face of massive street protests and
warnings from the European Union that the levy was a mistake.
Opponents of the tax, who said it would have hurt consumers
already struggling with a faltering economy, described the
U-turn as a major victory.
But Orban’s announcement was unlikely to end discontent
among liberal Hungarians who accuse him of being an autocrat and
are frustrated there is no prospect of removing him until
elections in 2018. Recent anti-tax rallies have been a catalyst
for broader anti-government protests.
“This tax in its current form cannot be introduced,” Orban
told public radio. “If the people not only dislike something but
also consider it unreasonable then it should not be done.”
The climb-down was unusual for the usually combative Orban,
but he may have decided that he already had enough contentious
issues on his plate.
The U.S. government has barred six people with ties to the
government in Hungary, a NATO ally, from entering the United
States. It alleges they are involved in corruption. Orban is
also tangling with big European banks over a scheme to help
borrowers that will cost the banks huge sums.
Meanwhile, there is concern in Western capitals that Orban
is drifting into the orbit of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his four years in power, Orban’s government has ordered
an audit into civil society groups, has tightened state
oversight over the media and slapped costly levies on foreign
companies.
The European Union and the United States have voiced
concerns that Orban, who made his name opposing Communist rule
in the 1980s, has acquired too much power and is back-sliding on
democracy.
Orban rejects those allegations. Most Hungarian voters
supported him and his Fidesz party in April parliamentary
elections: it won about 45 percent of the vote on party lists.
But that has left a minority of Hungarians, many of them
liberal and pro-European, who dislike Orban’s policies yet have
been unable to challenge him at the ballot box.
Some Hungarian commentators have drawn parallels between
Orban and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is supported by
a majority of voters but faced protests earlier this year by the
liberals whom he has defeated at the ballot box.
FLAWED LAW
Orban said that the Internet tax plan was not being scrapped
altogether. He told public radio the government would start
consultations next year over internet regulation and potential
ways to tax some of the revenue generated online.
The tax plan was not likely to have made a significant
contribution to bringing down Hungary’s budget deficit, which is
anyway shrinking. Orban makes many policy decisions himself, and
has a track record of coming out with radical initiatives with
little or no consultation, say people who know him.
“Overall, the law was visibly flawed at several points, and
it seemed ill-prepared. It was not an ideological question or a
matter of big money,” said Tamas Lanczi, chief of Hungary’s
Szazadveg Political Analysis Centre.
“When any government faces an angry population the best
thing it can do is change course.”
The tax protests set off an outpouring of deeper unhappiness
with Orban’s rule among liberal-leaning sections of Hungarian
society.
“We are the people! And we the people have the right to rule
the country,” the movement that organised the anti-tax protests,
called “100,000 against the Internet tax”, said in a statement
on Friday.
The crowd that gathered in front of the economy ministry on
Tuesday evening chanted, alongside slogans about the Internet
tax: “Orban should resign!”
Yet there is no direct challenge to Orban’s rule. He has a
two-thirds majority in parliament, there are no national
elections for four years, and the Socialists, who were in
government before Orban, are in a state of disarray.
Under the planned tax, Internet service providers would have
paid 150 forints (60 US cents) per gigabyte of data traffic,
though it would have also let companies offset corporate income
tax against the new levy.
Protesters said they feared the telecoms and internet firms
would pass the cost onto consumers. The government later said
the tax would be capped at 700 forints for individuals and 5,000
for companies per month.
(Writing by Marton Dunai and Christian Lowe; Editing by Andrew
Heavens)
Article source: http://www.rte.ie/ten/news/2014/0920/645156-leonard-cohen-at-80-i-like-life-on-the-road/
* Tax plan triggered biggest demonstrations in years
* PM Orban says cannot proceed in face of public opposition* Tax was catalyst for outpouring of anti-Orban feeling* Orban opponents want him out, but majority backs him
(Releads, add background, reaction)By Krizstina Than and Marton...
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