ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION PRODUCT CHARGES: CHANGES ON THE HORIZON

The Hungarian Government submitted a bill on environmental protection product charges to the Hungarian Parliament in September 2017. The bill implements the changes of Directive 2012/19/EU on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which targets to make easier the payment of the charge and to reduce the administrative burden of the undertakings.

The bill introduces the terminology of metal package of beverages instead of retail packaging products, and decreases their charge from HUF 304 / kg to HUF 57 / kg. In order to reduce the use of plastic sacks, the bill would increase their charge to HUF 1,900 / kg. Those plastic sacks, which serve the storage of separated wastes, will be free of charge.

According to the current rules, it is rather complicated to determine the scope of the charge related products, since the rules on customs tariff as of 1 January 2010 are applicable. According to the bill, from 1 January 2018, the goods classification rules of the subject year would be applicable, which helps to identify the charge related products. From next year, instead of the current 9, there will be only 5 categories of electrical and electronic equipment. In order to motivate the spread of environmentally friendly solutions, the charge of car parts will be reduced by 50% in case of electric cars, and by 30% in case of hybrid cars.