Single-rate food chain supervision fee returns

The Hungarian parliament has amended the legislation on the food chain supervision fee: in the future even those companies will have to pay 0.1 percent of their sales revenue which have their net sales below HUF 500 million. György Vámos, the president of the National Trade Association (OKSZ) is of the opinion that the new law will have the worst effect on small shops, which didn’t have to pay the fee in the old system. However, micro- and small businesses have the option of paying a HUF 20,000 or HUF 700,000 flat rate a month. The 0.1-percent food chain supervision fee was introduced in 2012. As of this year the system changed in a way that the more a retailer earned, the higher proportion of its income it had to pay. Finally Brussels ruled that the new system was against the community principle of fair competition.