MEP Gyöngyösi: National food assistance programme to replace price caps

Over the last few months, Hungary has seen inflation sky-rocketing to nearly unprecedented heights and even breaking European records, especially in terms of food products. However, while other EU countries were able to keep the process under control, Hungary seems to have little chance to do so, “thanks” to the Orbán regime’s economic policy copied straight from the Socialist handbook.

The Orbán regime has been trying to stop the negative processes by imposing price caps on various products, but these measures just drive inflation even higher, cause constant product shortages and put small retailers out of business.

Jobbik – Conservatives drafted a proposal to immediately lift price caps in order to release some of the inflation pressure, while providing targeted assistance to those in need.

Our new programme focuses on the protection of children and families: the National Food Assistance Programme (NÉP) would provide fair, means-tested support for underprivileged Hungarian families. The programme would allow these families to use assistance that would help them to buy healthy, locally grown and produced Hungarian foods, but would not allow non-eligible citizens (without a real need) to draw down the assistance across the board. As proposed by Jobbik – Conservatives, the programme’s costs could be covered from the HUF 1500 billion of additional, inflation-generated VAT revenue paid into the national budget as the additional tax on the prices driven higher by inflation.

Citizens could be eligible for the assistance as follows: Jobbik proposes to provide a regular, monthly assistance to families living at or below the “poverty threshold” as defined by the Central Statistical Office (HUF 65000/month/person) until inflation is reduced to one digit. Citizens registered for the programme would receive non-cash (and non-cashable) vouchers that could only be used for the purposes defined in the NÉP programme, and every commercial outlet would be obliged to exchange them for the goods identified in the programme. As a possible alternative, the Treasury could transfer the NÉP assistance to an electronic card as well.

The NÉP voucher/card could primarily be used to purchase healthy domestic food, vegetables, fruits, grains, bakery goods, fish, meat and dairy products (it would not be used for buying foods with high salt, sugar and fat content such as chips, sugary soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, energy drinks, tobacco products and other luxury goods), in compliance with the effective regulations on communal catering.

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