Parliament passes Hungary’s 2022 headline budget

Parliament on Tuesday passed into law the main figures of the government’s 2022 budget, together with amendments by parliament’s budget committee.

The budget passed with 121 votes for and 60 against.

Targeted central revenues total 25,393.8 billion forints as against expenditure of 28,546.5 billion, with a projected shortfall of 3,152.6 billion forints.

According to a justification to the bill, tourism is crucial for reviving the economy after the coronavirus epidemic, therefore the sector will benefit from a total of 81 billion forints next year for developments connected to restarting the economy, up from 40 billion forints this year.

Under the amendments, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences will receive extra funding of 7.3 billion forints to improve “routine academic services for the scientific community”, as well as to reinforce the Academy’s scholarship programmes.

Local government offices will receive an extra 10 billion forints to renew their infrastructure and start new developments.

Youth and family organisations will have access to 2.8 billion forints, 850 million forints more than in 2021, while ethnic minority governments will be granted over 1 billion forints for their operations.