UPDATED: Hungarian government to impose new "internet tax" in 2015

[JcGross]

Seriously, WHAT THE HELL? Everyone is up in arms about this right now in my country because this is truly ridiculous. They want to levy 150 HUF in tax for every gb started! Which means to download shadow of mordor would be roughly 20-25 USD (~5500-6000 HUF). That is outrageous. Just to be clear, this is ON TOP of regular internet package fees.
 
Edit:
As it turns out UN regulations state that the Right to Internet access is a basic human right. "The right to Internet access, also known as the right to broadband, is the view that all people must be able to access the Internet in order to exercise and enjoy their rights to Freedom of expression and opinion and other fundamental human rights, that states have a responsibility to ensure that Internet access is broadly available, and that states may not unreasonably restrict an individual's access to the Internet. Internet access is recognized as a right by the laws of several countries."
 
Now, in light of the current government's whole propaganda about lowering utility costs and that the country is performing better and better year by year, I think it's pretty f*ing unreasonable to start taxing internet thereby restricting my access to it.
 
Lastly I'd like to point out that the average income in former Soviet Union countries (or at least here) is lower than in other places like the USA, UK, Germany or whatever. I'm not too big on current global economics but, as far as I know, taxes here are relatively big and the cost of, well, everything is pretty high. I wouldn't be this upset if it was for example 150 HUF for every 10GB (although there would still be a pretty big uproar). But this is over the line. #donttakeawaymyinternet #taxgate
 
Edit 2: I'd like to thank everyone's contribution to the topic. My main goal was to raise awareness about the issue. I also would like to bring everyone's attention to a reply to this topic which nicely adds to my original post imo. (thanks again lakospeter)
 

I've also been following the news (I'm Hungarian). To clarify, this planned tax is for ISPs, but ultimately, it means that the end user would have to pay more one way or the other.
Besides the fact that people are already heavily taxed in this country, my biggest issue with this planned tax is that it
1) could possibly restrict informational freedom by giving less people the possibility to pay the monthly Internet fee
2) would hold back the adoption of technological advancements (audio and video streaming, online storage, etc.)

And yes, we are doing something about this. The plan was announced this afternoon, and there is already a protest being arranged on Facebook where 6k people said "going".
https://www.facebook...881301788579327

The online press is full of articles on the issue and so is Twitter and Facebook.
Hopefully Anonymous knows about this already, or will soon.

One more thing to mention: there was another big piece of news today about 6 Hungarian citizens that were barred from entering the United States. The whole thing is a mess, and very little is known, but one thing is certain: these 6 people were all public officials or affiliated with the Hungarian government and were involved in some sort of political corruption.
The Internet tax plan could potentially be a fraud to draw people's attention away from this corruption issue. Whatever is the case, Hungarians should give attention to both issues and the connection between them.

And also:

The main issue is not the amount, but the notion.
 
For the record, the minimum wage (after taxes) is 217€ or $276.
Avarage salary is about 490€ or $623 (after taxes).
The amount of tax only makes sense if you know how to put that in perspective.

 
UPDATE: As OP of this topic I feel it's my responsibility to keep the thread updated to the best of my ability. My best advice to those who want the most up-to-date information about the matter is to look for lakospeter 's comments. But to sum it up here's what's happened so far.

A lot of people got up in arms and started flooding the internet with posts about this. They started planning a big protest which got taken down (allegedly because a lot of people reported it, but who buys that?). Since then an other one was started to be organized. The government, probably seeing the backlash of their stupidity, quickly backed out saying that only the ISPs would be taxed, not individual consumers and that there would be an upper limit to the tax, although they did not specify how much that would be (speculations based on the current telecommunications tax say it's expected to be a maximum of 700HUF (~2.8USD or ~2.3EUR) per month). They didn't say the same thing for companies though which means they would have to pay their own taxes (which will presumably be more significant than the end users's taxes).

Since my original post some other news sites have reported on this, I'll post them in the sources as well.

 

[sources]:
http://www.portfolio.hu/en/economy/hungary_to_impose_internet_levy_in_2015_tax_plans_show.28561.html

http://www.bbj.hu/politics/hungary-to-tax-internet-content-providers_83298

 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/22/7038757/hungary-internet-tax

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/22/uk-hungary-internet-tax-idUKKCN0IB0RI20141022

[Bloodyvalley]

[Shroomster]

RIOT!

[Lord Pantaloons]

Holy balls............

[Real_PhillBert]

For those interested but too lazy to look up the conversion rate, that is ~$0.62/Gb

[Shalashaska]

That's some dumb shit, I'd leave the country.

[mansoor_]

Is the internet a goverment owned utility in hungary?

[Toddwjp]

thats barbaric. 

[Vacsol]

$0.62/Gb on top of regular internet fees.

that is completely insane.

[Kameegaming]

I guess there is an advantage to being a Hungarian stuck in Slovakia

[DeViLzzz]

People we knew this would be coming eventually.  I am shocked it hasn't ended up in North America yet to be honest.  I also would support my federal government, Canada, charging a small tax right now on online purchases.  Start with 1% and go from there.

[Real_PhillBert]

People we knew this would be coming eventually.  I am shocked it hasn't ended up in North America yet to be honest.  I also would support my federal government, Canada, charging a small tax right now on online purchases.  Start with 1% and go from there.

I hope you guys keep that kind of thinking up there

[ACatWithThumbs]

 Which means to download shadow of mordor would be roughly 20-25 USD 

Why are the games so cheap there ? 

In Germany you pay $76 (60€) for a new game.

EDIT: Just saw it's $25 on top of the normal game price.

[Valentyn]

That's horrible.

 

I hope the people there petition the government to try and remove it.

It's an outrageous charge per GB.

[Furkmyster]

People we knew this would be coming eventually.  I am shocked it hasn't ended up in North America yet to be honest.  I also would support my federal government, Canada, charging a small tax right now on online purchases.  Start with 1% and go from there.

 

We pay enough bloody taxes in this country already.  Adding more is beyond dumb.  Only a Liberal or NDP government would be stupid enough to try that.

[Lepp]

Why are the games so cheap there ?

In Germany you pay $76 (60€) for a new game

 

I think the OP is saying it would cost an additional $20-$25 to download the game after purchasing it for retail price.

 

Edit: Which is terrifying.

[Tonylu1595]

Why are the games so cheap there ?

In Germany you pay $76 (60€) for a new game

That was for internet tax only.

[MangoJuiceStain]

Why are the games so cheap there ?

In Germany you pay $76 (60€) for a new game

... He meant $20-25 PLUS the price of the game... Did you even read the post?

[Techhog]

Great. It's onl;y a matter of time before other companies adopt this. I average 400-500GB per month. I'd need to basically only use the internet when necessary, and I'd just quit gaming altogether.

[JcGross]

Why are the games so cheap there ?

In Germany you pay $76 (60€) for a new game

No, that's on TOP of the game. The average income here is lower to begin with, on retail I bought Shadow of Mordor for ~41 USD. Downloading it would generate so much traffic that in taxes it would cost about 20-25$ extra. EVERY TIME you download it. So you can't get rid of it. Which is an interesting conundrum: you'd have to pay a lot to download large games, so you wouldn't want to delete them. But you have to because your hard drive would fill up awfully fast. So you either buy extra hard drives or pay the tax.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Hungarian government is too Hungary..   ,

 

Either it's gonna get rejected or anonymous targeted sweep to take over .gov sites until they give up..

[JcGross]

Is the internet a goverment owned utility in hungary?

No. Ironically the government's big thing is lowering utility costs like water, electricity, gas. Guess they don't count internet as a "utility".

[ACatWithThumbs]

I think the OP is saying it would cost an additional $20-$25 to download the game after purchasing it for retail price.

 

Edit: Which is terrifying.

That's insane WTF

[MasterRaceFanBoy]

Move to Romania.. lol.. look for this speeds my friend pays $15.

 

[JcGross]

Move to Romania.. lol.. look for this speeds my friend pays $15.

Yeah, the packages are good here too. We pay 30$ for 100/50. The thing is I'd rather not move to an other country until I finish my studies.