Opposition parties criticise 2018 budget

Budapest (MTI) – Hungarian opposition parties slammed the 2018 draft budget submitted to parliament by the economy minister on Tuesday.

Opposition Jobbik called the bill an election budget and said the family benefits proposed in the draft would only favour the prime minister and those close to him.

Daniel Z Kárpát, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference that the budget would not improve the economy or make the lives of Hungarian families any easier. He criticised the year-end “premium” pencilled in for pensioners saying that because of previously underestimated inflation levels, pensioners were only now going to get what they would already have been entitled to.

He also criticised the 27 percent VAT rate, the “exotic taxes” that he said the budget keeps in place and what he said was the budget’s failure to address the situation of troubled forex borrowers.

He said the government was overestimating economic growth for next year, adding that the absence of baseline data meant that it was guaranteed that the budget would have to be amended.