At last Thursday’s press conference, Kiss Ambrus, the Deputy Mayor of the Capital City Municipality, announced that the Capital City Municipality is preparing a survival plan, as Budapest may go bankrupt by the summer if the government does not help. In the past period, Kiss has repeatedly asked the cabinet headed by Viktor Orbán to help the capital, but so far all his requests for help have turned out to be empty. However, the local government does not have much choice, and for this reason they announced that they will refuse to pay the solidarity contribution to the state treasury.
THE news from hvg.hu according to him, the emergency solution may be if the capital does not transfer the 54 billion solidarity tax to the budget.
The information was also confirmed by Norbert Élő, the SE economic development councilor of the capital. He claimed that the Metropolitan Municipality will announce on Wednesday that they will refuse to pay the solidarity contribution to the state treasury. This tax is a burden imposed by the government on the wealthier municipalities, from which the central budget provides additional resources to the poorer local authorities.
Due to the obligation to pay taxes, local governments find themselves in a difficult situation, as the state treasury immediately collects the tax arrears. This was also confirmed by Tamás Wittinghoff, the opposition mayor of Budaörs, who said that
It is impossible not to let them withdraw, since the treasury has access to the accounts of the settlements.
The local governments cannot ignore the tax payment obligation anyway, and that is why the refusal of the capital to pay the item exceeding fifty billion seems like a communication ploy. However, Kiss Ambrus said at last week’s press conference that the capital must preserve two areas that cannot be touched when compiling the survival program: public services and wages, but funds are needed to balance them.
Cover image: Shutterstock.
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