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UDMR's Kelemen Hunor: I don't agree to tax increases, collection is at catastrophic level
Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Chairman Kelemen Hunor said on Monday evening that he does not agree with tax increases, believing that more attention should be paid to the collection of taxes, which is "at a catastrophic level."
"I don't know if taxes should be increased or not. They made the budget. In my view they shouldn't. I don't know if they shouldn't because of the poorly prepared draft. I can't tell. I wouldn't go for taxes. Until we start to touch taxes and increase taxes there are some issues that need to be clarified. What do we do with the revenues, how do we collect those revenues, which every year, 13-14, some say 30 billion from VAT remain somewhere between the national budget and companies. Collection is at a catastrophic level. Then the work is taxed much more than it should be in a country like Romania, in a developing country. So that's where we should have reduced, not increased taxes. And there are a few areas where we should have moved. We have a problem with the structural deficit. Until the government has the courage, on the one hand, or the vision, or the courage and the vision to tackle the structural deficit, these improvisations won't solve anything, not in hospitals, not in pensions, not in schools. We should have allocated several tens of billions annually to schools, to renovate schools, to make schools safe, to hospitals. We wake up with zero lei," Kelemen Hunor told Digi24.
According to the UDMR leader, in the current formula of the 2024 budget proposed by the governing coalition, the money from the income tax no longer goes to the local authorities, but to the state budget.
He maintained that the budget for 2024 is ''catastrophic," not even providing money for the 26 hospitals in the EIB programme.
"The PNL [National Liberal Party] made the budget. The Minister of Finance, if I know correctly, if something hasn't happened in the last few hours and days, is from the PNL. I mean it's amazing, after sending a catastrophic budget to Parliament... Now what can I tell you? They forgot to include the money for 26 hospitals, which are in the EIB programme, (...) now it appears in the budget for 2024 with zero lei. And to say that it is a catastrophic budget ... they were right, but they did it," says Kelemen Hunor.
Asked if the second pension pillar is in danger, the UDMR leader replied, "I don't think it is in danger, but there have been initiatives to nationalise it. Every time I have participated in some discussions and I have said (...) it is not possible. Don't tamper with Pillar II. Unacceptable. I am against the nationalisation of Pillar II. I am against progressive taxation and I am against taxes and duties. (...) Until we, the Romanian state, the state institutions, with the collection do not reach at least an acceptable level in the European Union, it is enormously irresponsible to add more taxes," said Kelemen Hunor.
