Hungary will force banks, telecommunications companies, insurance companies, airlines, the energy sector and large supermarket chains to pay a large part of their “excess” profits to the state budget, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday, according to Reuters and MTI.

Orban said the special taxes will apply this year and next. Banks and companies that make additional profits in the current difficult situation in the context of the Ukrainian war and rising prices will have to help finance the consolidation of the Hungarian army and the capping of energy prices for the population, he said in a video on Facebook, according to Agerpres.

The head of the Budapest government stressed his commitment to protect “families, pensioners, jobs and utility price reductions even in the event of a prolonged war” in neighboring Ukraine.

The protracted war and the EU’s sanctions policy, which “show no improvement”, will together lead to “drastic price increases”, Orban explained, stressing that the Hungarian army must be strengthened without delay.

Therefore, “we ask them and expect those who make excessive profits in this war situation to help the people and contribute to the country’s defense spending,” concluded Viktor Orban, who declared a state of emergency on Tuesday due to the armed conflict in Ukraine.