Szijjarto: Hungary opposed to tax communitisation by Brussels

Hungary rejects efforts by Brussels to advance "a kind of socialist, utopian economic strategy" through tax harmonisation and the communitisation of taxation, Peter Szijjarto, the foreign affairs and trade minister, said at a conference organised by business daily Vilaggazdasag on Thursday. Tax harmonisation, conducted by unifying member states' tax policies, would set back competitiveness, while making taxation a supranational, rather than a sovereign matter, would spread the burden resulting from the undisciplined fiscal policy of some governments to other countries, Szijjarto said. Hungary's tight fiscal policy and special policies have produced a decline in public debt relative to GDP even while the government has implemented tax cuts, he added.