Steven N.Municipalities and companies will no longer be able to enjoy lower utility costs under the government’s new utility price cut policy, Minister of Economic Development Márton Nagy recently announced. Nagy noted that the policy was originally intended for households, but the official price cap was also applied to localities and businesses during the pandemic.
However, municipalities were not consulted beforehand on the decision to cut them out of the utility price cut policy, which not only frustrated opposition-led towns, but even the Fidesz mayor of Székesfehérvár, András Cser-Palkovics.
Obviously, it would have been good if there had been consultations, and we could have seen, for example, the calculations on which the Minister said that each of the municipalities would be able to manage on their own. I’m a little more pessimistic about it.
-the Fidesz politician told ATV News. He noted that public lighting is for people who live in the town, referring to one municipal expense that will go up significantly. The mayor expects the measure to cost his city an extra 2-3 billion Ft. (US $5.5-8.3 million) a year.
Cser-Palkovics also said that while he could accept that “extraordinary measures are needed in emergencies,” he thinks it would be important for the state to allow them to access their revenues.
In November of last year, the government forbade municipalities from raising local taxes, limiting their ability to increase revenue. [HVG]
