A proposal submitted to Parliament by Fidesz parliamentary caucus leader János Lázár last week seeks to prevent utility companies from shutting off power to certain customers who fail to pay their bills.
According to Index.hu, Lázár’s “new war” is seen by insiders as part of a series of clashes between Lázár, who is also mayor of the east Hungarian town of Hódmezővásárhely, and utility company EDF Démász. Lázár’s motion is also regarded as specifically tailored for public institutions, which pay for their energy in a different way than household consumers.
According to data published by researcher Progresszív Intézet, the per-resident debt ratio of Hódmezővásárhely is one of the largest in the country.
The relations between the town and Démász went sour after the French-owned utility cut off power to a local kindergarten for non-payment of a HUF 23,500 electricity bill.
Industry insiders said that the proposal would allow public institutions, many of them notorious late-payers, to ignore their utility bills with no consequences, leaving power companies no recourse but lengthy and costly legal suits.
National Development Ministry undersecretary János Bencsik said Lázár had not consulted with the Ministry before submitting his proposal, which he did not back anyway because “it fails to account for the possible consequences” and “could destroy the entire electricity distribution system”
As ‘leto’ would put it:
“National Development Ministry undersecretary János Bencsik” just signed his ‘resignation’
Question what The Supreme Leader’s Bulldog is doing?
No, then you end up as the current President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court
To correct myself:
Chief Judge Andras Baka, who will be fired now, is the boss for the Hungarian Supreme Court and not the Constitutional Court
Otherwise no change
Another war on business could be that the new license for mobile communication (tender is to be closed in a week or so), is rumoured to go to Chinese Huaweii in co-operation with the Hungarian State Electrical Company
We will see a week or so later, when it will be official
Will be interesting to see the international reaction, if this turns out to be more than just a rumour
Why doesn’t FIDESZ just require that banks sell Swiss Francs on a 1 to 1 basis to the entities in default. The entities could then turn around and pay off their debts with the Francs.
Easy Peasy!