Government imposes ‘extra profit’ tax on fuel suppliers

As the government slaps a windfall tax on fuel suppliers, a former left-wing politician calls on the government to compensate families for higher fuel prices. A pro-government columnist accuses the Left of demagogic opportunism.

After scrapping fuel price caps on Tuesday night, the government issued a decree on Wednesday night raising the ‘profit tax’ on the price gap between Brent and Russian Urals crude oil from 40 per cent to 95 per cent. The decision will impact the MOL oil company which imports Russian crude oil directly through the Druzhba oil pipeline, which is exempt from EU sanctions on Russia. Urals is currently sold at 25 EUR below the price of Brent.

On Hírklikk, former MSZP Vice-President Imre Szekeres agrees that the government should take away MOL’s windfall profit resulting from cheaper Urals crude imports, but considers it outrageous that the government keeps the money rather than subsidizing poor families who cannot afford fuel sold at the market price. Szekeres writes that from the 800 billion Forint extra revenue resulting from higher taxes on fuel, the government could easily offer a 15,000 Forint monthly voucher for every family to subsidize transportation. In many poorer areas of Hungary, employees have to travel long distances to work.

Magyar Nemzet’s Gergely Kiss finds it shocking that the same left-wing politicians who used to criticize the fuel price cap now demand that the government should subsidize fuel consumption. The pro-government contends that if the Left were in government, Hungarians families could not have enjoyed lower fuel prices for 13 months. The government did everything to help families, he writies, but the EU’s sanctions on Russia make it impossible to maintain the fuel price cap without causing shortages.

Tags: energy, fuel price, MOL, taxes