Parliament on September 18 approved an amendment to the law on transferring state assets to municipalities or counties, the SITA newswire wrote.
Based on the new rules, it will only be possible to sell superfluous state immovable assets in a special bidding process. If no bid reaches the so-called "appropriate" price, the proceedings can be repeated twice. The price can then be reduced by a maximum of 70 percent. Municipalities and counties will only be able to receive the property if no one buys it at this minimum price.
The revision was submitted by ruling coalition deputies Rudolf Pučík from the SNS and Jan Kovarčík from the HZDS. SMER MP Viliam Jasan succeeded with his proposal according to which in the repeated bidding process, steps set out by law on administration of state assets need not be observed.
Several opposition MPs expressed their reservations. KDH deputy Július Brocka thinks that municipalities and counties are being kept on the sidelines. He considers the amendment a form of hidden privatisation. He is concerned that people close to the ruling coalition may thus get the superfluous state assets. He added that the value of the superfluous state assets is estimated at Sk1.7 billion (€56.4 million). After repeated bidding processes, the price may be reduced by around Sk1.2 billion (€39,832,703) and the assets sold to companies selected by the ruling coalition.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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