Under a government program launched last December, some HUF 2.4 billion in subsidies supported businessesʼ purchase of 30,200 bank card terminals.

Small businesses will benefit most from the subsidies, said state secretary Ágnes Hornung.

Boosting the number of bank card, rather than cash, transactions fits well with government measures to crack down on tax evasion.

The number of point-of-sale bank card terminals at merchant outlets rose 10% to 112,700 in Q1 from the same period a year earlier, the latest data from the National Bank of Hungary shows.