The (Socialist) head of parliament’s budget committee has called on the finance minister and members of the Fiscal Council to appear before the committee to discuss the amendment to the 2023 budget. Zoltán Vajda said in statement on Thursday that from the outset the Socialists had argued that the 2023 budget passed in the summer was unsustainable and an amendment was needed. The budget adopted by decree in December, he said, was not a proper budget and public money was not being spent in a transparent manner. Until the new budget is adopted, it will not be clear how taxpayers’ money is being managed, he added.
Vajda said clarity was needed regarding the fund for protecting energy subsidies and the purchase of Vodafone’s Hungarian unit. Also, information is needed regarding “the stealthy introduction of the euro”, as well as government support for Erasmus+, with funding for the latter already a part of the budget by decree, he said.