Economy 7 July 2023, 8:50am

Major budget reallocation has arrived - Who are the biggest winners?

Portfolio

The government has transferred nearly HUF 190 billion from the Overheads Protection Fund in two decisions announced on Thursday. A significant part of this has been allocated to ministries and central budget bodies, but also to church and civil institutions, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing to provide further overheads support to the competitive sector.

The Government has announced its decision on the "Transfer of appropriations from the Overheads Protection Fund chapter", which was already referred to by Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister's Office, at the Government Info on Thursday. In this regard, the minister said that this transfer is the amount of the state contribution to the current utility bills. Of this, more than HUF 132 billion is the allocation for hospitals, schools and regional administrative institutions, he added. He said that this significant transfer also highlights the burden that the increased energy prices are placing on the country. But the budget can compensate for this and cover the additional needs of public institutions in terms of energy costs, he said. (Remember, it is partly because of high utility costs that the budget is in a dire situation this year.)

Accordingly, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga was given the task, with an immediate deadline, to transfer HUF 169.444 billion in the 2023 budget to the Overheads Protection Fund: of this, HUF 131 billion was taken from the line for the compensation of central budgetary bodies, while HUF 38 billion was taken from the line for the support of church and civil institution holders.

This is how each institution benefited:

Ministry of the Interior, Specialised Institutes for Preventive Health Care: HUF 39.3 billion.
Ministry of the Interior, Klebelsberg Centre: HUF 28.5 billion.
Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Chapter Appropriations, Support to non-state higher education institutions: HUF 22.3 billion.
Ministry of Defence, other Ministry of Defence organisations: HUF 12.5 billion.
Ministry of the Interior, Chapter appropriations, Human services and operating aid for public education: HUF 11.8 billion.
Prime Minister's Office, government agencies: HUF 8.5 billion.
Ministry of Finance, Directorate General for Public Procurement and Supply: HUF 8.2 billion.
Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Vocational Training Centres: HUF 6.3 billion.
Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Universities and Colleges: HUF 4.1 billion.
Ministry of Agriculture, Secondary agricultural vocational education institutions: HUF 3.8 billion.
Ministry of the Interior, Chapter Appropriations, Health Care and Development: HUF 3.8 billion.
Ministry of Interior, Department of Penitentiary: HUF 3.6 billion.
Ministry of Finance, Hungarian State Treasury: HUF 3.6 billion.
Ministry of Finance, National Tax and Customs Office: HUF 2.8 billion.
Ministry of Interior, Police: HUF 1.79 billion.
Ministry of Interior, National Ambulance Service: HUF 1.644 billion.
Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Public Collections: HUF 1 billion.
Prime Minister's Office, National University of Public Service: HUF 0.965 billion.

In another decision, the Government made several budget transfers at the same time, the largest of which also concerned the Overheads Protection Fund, namely by taking HUF 20 billion from the Fund's support to the private sector and giving it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the Investment Promotion earmarked budget.

Cover photo: Minister of Prime Minister's Office Gergely Gulyás (r) and Government Spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi (l) at the Government Info press conference at the Prime Minister's Office on 6 July 2023. Source: MTI/Zoltán Máthé