欧美文化:Hungarian gov't to impose 95 pct extra profit tax on energy company MOL

BUDAPEST, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Hungarian government increased the special tax paid by local leading gas and oil company MOL on its profit made from the price difference between Russian Urals crude oil and Brent oil from 40 to 95 percent, according to official sources.

The announcement was made late Wednesday night in the official Gazette.

This is the second time that the tax levied in the summer was raised, which was initially 25 percent. From now on, the state will take practically the entire margin.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban hinted during the day that after the abolishment of the fuel price cap on Tuesday night, an increase in the extra profit tax was to be expected, and this was also a topic at today's government meeting.

The Hungarian government announced a stop to capping fuel prices late Tuesday night.

Gergely Gulyas, head of the Prime Minister's Office, has blamed the European Union (EU) sanctions on Russian oil for the disruption in the domestic fuel supply.

The scraping of the price cap was preceded by a wide shortage of fuel in the domestic supply due to a malfunction of MOL's local refinery as well as depleted import sources due to the capped price, and the resulting panic buying further worsened the situation at the filling stations.