From the 2026 budget audit
NÉBIH's state-owned companies: 500 million Ft with a soft budget constraint.
500 million Ft funds state-owned companies under NÉBIH's ownership — shielded from market discipline by an annual appropriation that covers their losses.
Roughly 125 Ft per taxpayer per year — 500 million Ft total — for state-owned companies that generate 200 million Ft in dividends against the full ownership and appropriation costs.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: companies held under state ownership through NÉBIH, receiving annual funding from the general budget. The unseen: a loss that is absorbed by next year's appropriation rather than by an owner who bears the consequence — the mechanism that prevents the internal correction a market-exposed owner would make.
Objection
"These companies support NÉBIH's food-safety mandate — they are not ordinary trading businesses."
Answer
Where a company performs a genuine supervisory function tied to NÉBIH's mandate, that function belongs inside NÉBIH. Where it performs commercial activity, state ownership imposes a soft budget constraint — a loss is covered by next year's appropriation rather than corrected by the owner. The phase-out separates supervisory functions from commercial ones and divests the latter.
Share if you think state-owned companies with a soft budget constraint should be privatised or absorbed into the body they serve.
The analyst's verdict
Funding to companies under NEBIH ownership
Rationale
This line funds companies held under NÉBIH's ownership rights. State ownership of trading companies is the same calculation difficulty seen in the stud-farm line: a company funded by an annual appropriation rather than by market revenue and the discipline of private equity faces a soft budget constraint — a loss is met by next year's allocation rather than by the owner's exposure. Where these companies perform a genuine delegated supervisory function tied to NÉBIH's food-chain mandate, that function should be performed inside NÉBIH and funded through the supervision line. Where they perform commercial activity, the state ownership should be divested. Phase out the funding line over three years, resolving each company into either the NÉBIH core function or private ownership.
Transition mechanism
Phase-out over 3 years. Review each company: delegated supervisory functions absorbed into NÉBIH; commercial activities divested under an SOE-Act-style commercial-mandate-then-sale process.
Affected groups
The companies and their staff; NÉBIH, which absorbs any genuine supervisory function.
Free Society Institute
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