Hungary wants to tax the internet

by nagba | April 24, 2008 at 07:30 am

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Did you hear that Hungary is a controversial country? Well this is just one more example for this. We would need to spread the use of internetin our country since considering the internet penetration in EU we arestill somewhere behind. So what should one do to help this? Support it.Instead there is a proposal for a so called "cultural charge" that willbe applied on the Internet, WAP and MMS services.

Géza Szathmári, chairman of ATSzE (Alliance of Alternative Telecommunications Providers) and manager of Internet service provider company GTS Datanet points out that although broadband tariffs dropped to 20% of their former rate over the past five years, one of the most important obstacles toward the spread of internet usage is still its cost.

The number of broadband subscriptions rose by more than 40% in 2007, which is a faster growth rate than the EU average, but Hungary is still way behind.

Well even if the officials say, that half of the income will be spent to developthe "digital culture" I still have some problems comprehending this. Iknow the country is in a bad shape and we are trying to get itstraight, but would not there be more income if they supported theinternet usage?

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