Italians would have to pay a 20-percent tax on pornography according to a budget amendment that cleared a first legislative hurdle, the Associated Press reported.
The proposed tax was approved at committee level and is expected to go before Italy's lower parliamentary house early next week, according to the report.
The tax is expected to raise about (US$260 million) to help reduce the national deficit and to help fund government tax breaks to families.
"I believe the porn tax is important not for moralistic reasons, which don't concern me, but because I think that at a time of difficult economic conditions for families it is right to tax products that are not essential," lawmaker Daniela Santache told the Associated Press.
