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The sector’s effective tax rate reaches 45% when additional taxes and other mandatory burdens are included, he told Kossuth Radio.
Jelasity, who also heads Erste Bank’s Hungarian unit, said the figure takes into account sectoral taxes, the mandatory rate freeze on home mortgages and the financial transactions duty.
He added that banking sector profits had halved since the introduction of those additional burdens.
Jelasity welcomed the government’s decision to restart a state-subsidized home savings scheme. He also acknowledged plans to restrict the 3% subsidized mortgage rate to purchases of newly built homes, while offering a 5% rate to buyers of existing properties.
The previous government’s introduction a year earlier of a fixed 3% subsidized loan scheme for all first-time homebuyers would “cost taxpayers an awful lot of money,” he said.
“The right way forward is market-based, not lending supported from taxpayers’ money,” he added.
Jelasity said the banking sector’s economic outlook was in line with government forecasts, adding that a pickup in corporate investment could support growth.
He described the government’s communication with banks as “fair and transparent.”
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