The Mysterious Affair at NAV or tax-transparency in Hungary:
"The website atlatszo.hu which is an independent watchdog NGO to promote freedom of information and transparency in Hungary came out with a detailed study on the Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) corrupt practices assisted by officials within the tax authority.
The study was written by András Horváth, a tax inspector who just left the service after 14 years employment and submitted recently a report to Hungary’s Chief Prosecutor, backing his statement with documentary proof. According to his statement, corruption at governmental level makes large scale VAT (value added tax) fraud possible, at least 1000 to 1700 billion HUF yearly, depriving the public budget of huge revenue, estimated to be 5 to 6 % of the GDP.He states that since 2007 the illegal evade and reimbursement of VAT is a practice of highly organized criminal groups in close relations with the state administration, whatever the governor party was.
actions
First he disclosed the details at a press conference in Budapest, (8th November ) organized by the Clean Air Action Group, the Association for the Protection of Interest of Enterprises and Atlatszo.hu Nonprofit Ltd.
Afterwards they also organized an open forum (21st November ) together with the young activists of Students Network HaHa. The original place of the event would had been the room A047 of the ELTE University by the Dean of ELTE, Tamás Dezső forbade the forum, that took finally place in an event room, called Versailles, near to Heroes square.
A new forum is being organized for the 27th November.
reactions
András Horváth was invited to the 3rd seating of the control subcommittee’ of the Hungarian Parliament budgetary control committee, where György Matolcsy and Mihány Varga former and present ministers of economy would had been also invitees. Later Fidesz depute, György Balla announced that Fidesz fraction will not participate as the report is examined currently by prosecution court.
Previous seating in June 2013 of the sub-committee was not held either because only the president was present. He is a depute of the extreme right party, Jobbik , Daniel Z. Kárpát. And the first one in last February lost only 6 minutes.
The green party Politics can be different (LMP) organized a flash-mob in front of the tax authority building, last Friday (22nd November) and suggested to create a board of enquiry but sufficient number of signatures was not collected. Nobody signed from Fidesz and DK parties.While the new green party PM wants to invite him to participate in the work of the budgetary committee, the socialist party would obligate the parliament to inspect validity of the statements of the ex-tax inspector, and examine the case and propose eventual solution to improve tax authority work efficiency.
sources: MTI, Hungarian news agency and atlatszo.hu
see also: http://atlatszooktatas.cink.hu/kepeink-a-versailles-ban-megtartott-snowdenkedesrol-na-1469623697 "