Parliament approved last-minute changes to amendments that will postpone an earlier planned rise in the excise tax on cigarettes but raise the scale of an increase of the tax on E85 ethanol fuel blend instead of lowering it.
MPs approved the changes with a vote of 251 for and 90 against.
Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee tabled the postponement of the higher excise tax on cigarettes, arguing that conditions had to be established for the same taxation of products that are equally harmful to health.
Under the original amendment, the excise tax on cigarettes was to increase in three steps — this year, at the beginning of next year and in the middle of next year — from HUF 18,080 at present to HUF 19,400 per thousand cigarettes from July 1, 2012.
Instead of rising to HUF 12 per liter, the excise tax on E85 biofuel will climb to HUF 40 per liter, under a change proposed by an MP in KDNP, which is allied with governing Fidesz. The MP, András Aradszki, argued that lowering the tax would give E85 ethanol blend an unfair competitive advantage.
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