Govt. puts cap on tax following protests
"Hungary Internet-Tax Protest Swells Into Anti-Orban Demo", 27 Oct 2014
Tens of thousands of people marched in Budapest yesterday against a plan to introduce a 150 forint (62 cent) tax per gigabyte in the first rally of its size since Orban’s April re-election...Protesters, who gave the government until tomorrow to revoke its plan, said taxing Internet use was an attempt to restrict freedom of information by Orban, a recurrent argument against a leader whose centralization of power triggered criticism from allies including the U.S. and fellow European Union members...“Those who use the Internet see more of the world, that’s why the government doesn’t want a free Internet,” organizer Balazs Gulyas told the crowd. “We’re not going to pay an Internet tax to a corrupt tax authority.”...The ruling party issued a statement last night as protests were still under way that it would cap the tax at 700 forint and make telecommunication companies pay the levy instead of individual subscribers...The government argued the tax would generate as much as 25 billion forint of revenue...