A proposed tax on the Internet has been put on hold by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Hungary's government was pushing full steam ahead to impose a tax on Internet traffic. It faced huge opposition from the public and from businesses. Mr Orban announced his government had frozen the plans after witnessing huge street protests in the capital Budapest. He also eventually took heed of warnings from the European Union that the tax would be a mistake. Orban announced his climb-down in a radio broadcast on Friday, saying: "This tax in its current form cannot be introduced. If the people not only dislike something but also consider it unreasonable, then it should not be done."
匈牙利首相Viktor Orban擱置了一項對互聯(lián)網征稅的提議。匈牙利政府正在盡全力推進對互聯(lián)網征稅的行動。這一舉措遭到了公眾和企業(yè)的強烈反對。Orban先生宣布,當看到眾人在首都布達佩斯街頭進行抗議的時候,政府已經凍結了這一計劃。歐盟警告稱這項稅收將會是錯誤的決定,他也最終聽從了這一勸告。歐爾班在周五的時候,屈尊在電臺上發(fā)言稱,在目前的狀況之下,不會征收這一稅費。如果人們不僅不喜歡某一事物,而且認為這是不合理的,那么就不應該去做。
Hungary's U-turn on an Internet tax is not yet a victory for the people. Prime Minister Orban said he had not scrapped the idea altogether. He said there would be consultations starting in January next year to investigate the potential of generating tax revenue from the Internet. He said it would obviously have to be different in nature to the one just binned. That involved a 60-cent tax one on every gigabyte of data someone consumed. Critics voiced concerns this would limit freedom of expression and hurt online companies. Citizens will continue to campaign for a tax-free Internet. An anti-tax Facebook page already has over 250,000 Likes.
匈牙利對互聯(lián)網征稅方面的大轉變,并不是匈牙利人民的完全勝利??偫須W爾班說,他并沒有完全打消這一念頭。他說, 明年1月將開始調查研究互聯(lián)網產生稅收收入的潛力。他說,這顯然與完全取消這一提議,在本質上是不同的。這包括對于每個人消費的每十億字節(jié)征收60美分稅費。批評人士擔憂,這可能會限制言論自由,損害網絡公司的利益。公民將繼續(xù)組織活動,爭取互聯(lián)網免稅。一個反對稅收的Facebook頁面,已經受到250,000多名粉絲的喜愛。