Economy ministry working to fine-tune measures

The economy ministry is working on "fine-tuning" small business taxes, the workplace protection plan and the public procurement act, but it does not expect to make any big changes to the tax system, National Economy Minister Mihály Varga told business leaders on Tuesday. Varga told a meeting of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKIK) that the development of software allowing the connection of all tills in the country to the tax office was slightly behind schedule, but the government did not want to push back the June 30 deadline. Varga recently announced a package of fiscal adjustments that aims to ensure the European Commission lifts the excessive deficit procedure against Hungary. Varga told the BKIK meeting that the government had overestimated the number of companies that would switch over to two new taxes for smaller businesses, known by their Hungarian acronyms "kiva" and "kata". He said changes to the taxes could be made on the basis of consultations between ministry experts and business chamber representatives. The government wants to expand the workplace protection plan to include those parties until now excluded for administrative reasons, he said. The new public procurement act has met the government's expectations only in part, he added. He called, however, a favorable development, that eight of ten such procedures are being won by domestic SMEs.