Local governments must primarily use their local trade tax revenues for financing local public transport, and in the future this will be committed to a law.

At a press conference held on Tuesday in Budapest, the Minister of State for Public Administration of the Prime Minister’s Office said the government believes the funding of local public transport is one of the most important tasks of local governments, and the existing legal rules, too, lay down that the operation of public transport is a task of local governments.

“We would like to clarify” what this task involves, and therefore “we will lay down in a law that the local trade tax must be used primarily for financing local public transport,” and any part of these tax revenues can only be used for other purposes once this has been guaranteed, Bence Tuzson said.

“If (former Mayor of Budapest) István Tarlós was able to finance the capital’s public transport, (incumbent Mayor of Budapest) Gergely Karácsony, too, should be able to do so,” he said, adding that the government will honour all agreements that it concluded with the metropolitan municipality during Mr Tarlós’s mayorship.

(MTI)