Agriculture minister: Bill banning local authorities’ land tax submitted to parlt
The government has submitted a bill to parliament banning local authorities and mayors from imposing local taxes on land, Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said on Friday.
The bill was prepared in cooperation with farmers’ associations NAK and MAGOSZ, the statement said.
Addressing a conference organised by NAK in Godollo, near Budapest, Nagy noted that he received a petition signed by 120,000 farmers in March, against a local land tax introduced by the mayor of Hodmezovasarhely, in southern Hungary. Nagy himself also signed the petition, “because using a land tax to bleed out farmers already hit by a war, sanctions and droughts is not right.”
Farmers need local support rather than further burdens, he said.
The government is committed to the concept that farmland cannot be the taxed, and will lay that down in legislation, he said.
