Telenor Hungary’s net income impacted by ‘special taxes’

Telenor Hungary (formerly known as Pannon) has reported a drop in both operating and net profits for the third quarter of this year, as ‘special taxes’ and a new government-imposed telephone tax (implemented in July) ate into its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). The carrier, which is a unit of Norway’s Telenor, reported a 20% year-on-year fall in EBITDA in the three month ended 30 September 2012, impacted by payments of HUF2.5 billion (USD11.5 million) for the telephone tax and HUF2.4 billion in special taxes (i.e. crisis tax). Taken together, Telenor Hungary notes that the taxes alone are equivalent to 12% of the group’s total revenue for the period under review. Adding to its woes, Q3 2012 revenues dropped by HUF1.2 billion y-o-y, in part the result of a cut in termination fees in January that resulted in lower interconnect revenues. Operationally speaking, Telenor Hungary added a net 13,000 new mobile subscriptions in the July-September quarter, increasing its base to 3.458 million.