Fidesz: Cut to household utility bills saves households 550 euros each year

Budapest, January 11 (MTI) – Thanks to the government’s scheme to cut household utility bills, families are saving up to 170 000 forints (EUR 552) each year, deputy group leader of the ruling Fidesz party said on Wednesday.

Szilárd Németh told commercial channel ATV that the scheme launched in 2013 affected not only energy bills but sewage, water and the chimney-sweep fees too.

The effect of the price cuts means that public money which utility companies had previously siphoned off as profit out of the country was now being returned to the pockets of consumers, he said.

Between 2002-2010, inflation added up to 58 percent and the price of household gas went up by 206 percent, while electricity rose by 97 percent. Since then consumer prices have risen by 13 percent and gas and electricity price increases have slumped to 9.2 percent and 2.2 percent respectively, leaving the price rises well below the rate of inflation, he added.

Meanwhile, Németh responded to a question concerning his Tuesday statement on NGOs, saying that “fake organisations” belonging to Hungarian-born American financier George Soros should be scrapped because they were deliberately set up to influence Hungarian politics.

“They created a parallel world with their scholars and reports … financed and organised by a billionaire to address political questions” instead of professional and humanitarian ones.

Commenting on migration, he said “fake NGOs financed by George Soros entice immigrants to attack national politics, even though the country treats immigrants impeccably: here, their lodgings are not burnt down and they were never beaten,” Németh said.

Source: MTI