Fourteen professional associations, representing advertisers, newspaper publishers, radio broadcasters and media content providers, said in a statement that they had been in talks with the government, coordinated by the Hungarian Advertising Association, on the possible introduction of such a tax, but had not been informed of the submission of the bill on Monday.

The associations asked the government to reconsider the bill and continue its dialogue with industry insiders.

The bill, submitted by an MP of governing Fidesz, would introduce a progressive tax on consolidated annual ad revenue of 1% between HUF 500 mln and HUF 5 bln, 10% up to HUF 10 bln, 20% up to HUF 15 bln, 30% up to HUF 20 bln and 40% over that. Companies would be taxable from this year already, making two equal pre-payments, based on last year’s ad revenue, by August 20 and November 20.

The associations noted that every HUF 10 spent on advertising contributes HUF 47 to economic growth, according to a study by the Hungarian Advertising Association undertaken last year.