Opposition parties call for fixed base income
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After addressing an international conference on the subject in Budapest yesterday, the leader of the Socialist Party József Tóbiás said the introduction of a minimum, or base, income for all in Hungary would be helpful for society in a number of ways. He said an unconditional base income would help promote domestic consumption, encourage couples to have more children, reduce poverty and crime and boost social integration.
A fair base income would mean that people would not only receive “financial recognition” for their work, but they would also be seen as being useful to society for the value they produce, Tóbiás said at the conference, according to state-owned news agency MTI.
The ruling Fidesz party said in a statement yesterday that the Socialists now wanted to give “free” taxpayer money “to anyone” and insisted that paying a fixed base income would lead to austerity, indebtedness and higher taxes. The opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party accused the Socialists of only supporting the plan “in words but not in deeds”.
The partyʼs co-leader Tímea Szabó said in a statement that her partyʼs proposal put forward as part of a budget amendment had been voted down by both Fidesz and the Socialists in parliamentʼs welfare committee. Szabó said by regrouping just over HUF 2.2 trillion in the budget the base income could be introduced without increasing the budget deficit.
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