Hungary's government has announced a number of measures to weed out price-gougers and ensure sufficient domestic supply of building materials as prices rise.Continue reading
The government has extended the mandatory declaration of the export of strategic building materials from Hungary until May 31, the innovation and technology ministry said on Monday.
The government obligated building materials sellers to declare exports in the summer amid concerns that runaway prices could counter the benefits of a home renovation subsidy scheme.
Tamás Schanda, a state secretary of the ministry, said that iron and steel products, isolation materials, sand, stone and gravel, among others, can be exported only after the say-so of the ministry so that “exports do not hinder or risk the building, operation or development of key domestic infrastructure”.
The transport of strategic products and raw materials also has to be registered, he said.
Schanda said that measures to control the price of two of the most important building materials, gravel and sand, has brought 5 billion forints (EUR 13.9m) in state revenues until the end of December. At the same time, prices have also gone down, he said, pointing to the price of gravel in the Budapest area, which dropped to 3,000 forints/ton from 8,000 forints/ton.
featured image via Tamás Vasvári/MTI