Steven N.
The Interior Ministry informed local municipalities on Wednesday that despite their protests, the government would be cutting in half the local business tax (Iparűzési adó) next year, said Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Facebook. The business tax represents the capital’s single largest source of income that it collects itself.
“This year and next year alone, this measure will remove about as much money from the budgets of the Budapest Municipality and the districts as the value of Budapest City Hall, which is said to be worth nearly 40 billion forints,” wrote Karácsony.
The mayor added, “It isn’t the sale of City Hall that’s a scandal, but this! I wonder if Fidesz party soldiers, who are terrified for no reason of the wasting away of the city’s values, will now raise their voices against their government that continues to bleed the nation’s capital to death for political purposes.”
“Now’s the time for you to talk big!” said Karácsony to the Fidesz members on the City Council.
The possibility of cutting the local business tax in half next year was raised this past September, which the president of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK) discussed in an interview with Népszava.
[Népszava]
