Economy Minister Mihaly Varga said Monday that the Hungarian government may revise its bank tax to help ease lenders’ financial burden. The news comes less than a week after the passage of a new law that will force banks to convert foreign currency mortgages into forints starting in December. Banks will also have to repay borrowers for unfair fees and interest rate increases on loans taken out over the last 10 years. The Hungarian National Bank estimates that lenders will have to cover up to 900 billion forints in compensation costs.
Varga admitted in an interview with public Kossuth Radio that that the new law would be costly for banks. “I do not exclude that a revision or rethinking of the bank tax could happen since banks will take on a heavy burden to compensate clients, but the time for that is not now,” Varga said. The bank tax is “a crucial instrument in stabilizing the Hungarian economy and in the new form of sharing the public burden” he added. The country’s bank tax is one of the highest in the EU. Brussels has long been urging Budapest to scrap sectoral taxes, but Varga says that likely won’t happen. “I do not believe that we should accept Brussels’ position concerning this issue,” he said.
