Local services
The details of the agreement between Debrecen’s real estate development company (Debreceni Ingatlanfejlesztő Kft.; short: DIF) and the National Tax and Customs Office (NAV) were announced at a press conference held on the 24th of August 2023, by László Papp, Mayor of Debrecen, Ferenc Vágujhelyi, President and State Secretary of the National Tax and Customs Office, Zsolt Spander, Director of the Hajdú-Bihar County Tax and Customs Directorate of the NAV, and Ferenc Kun, Managing Director of Debreceni Ingatlanfejlesztő Kft. (DIF).
“It is a historic moment, because this type of agreement has never been signed between the Municipality of Debrecen and the NAV. I am very pleased that we can take our cooperation to a higher level”, Mayor of Debrecen László Papp said. He pointed out that the city’s economic structure is undergoing a transformation, as one of Europe’s largest economic and industrial development programmes is taking place in Debrecen, which impacts many areas of life.
The mayor added: “The essence of our agreement is that, in cooperation with the NAV, a large logistics centre will be created next to the Northwest Economic Zone as an industrial area, where the NAV will build a new office building with government support.
“The project aims to facilitate access to industrial areas and to relieve the city of significant traffic congestion,” László Papp said. “At the moment, the customs activity within the NAV is located on Vágóhíd Street, the street is one of the busiest routes in the city. This means that the traffic the NAV has to handle concerning customs activities will be located outside the city, not inside it, in a professional, new, modern office building,” he pointed out
A parking capacity of 254 trucks at a time will also be created on this site. One of the largest rail logistics terminals in Eastern Hungary has also been built in the North-Western Economic Belt in recent years, László Papp concluded.
Ferenc Vágujhelyi, President and State Secretary of the National Tax and Customs Administration, said: This step is also important so that we can create a civilised customs service that meets the requirements of today’s world, which does not wait for customers to come to it but goes to the customers, because although Europe is one of the most developed continents in the world, we must take advantage of the development that has taken place outside the continent.
“Both the Customs Service and our Tax and Customs Directorate will assist businesses that want to create and produce in the city,” said Ferenc Vágujhelyi, who stressed that if peace comes in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, it will be important for Ukraine to have more efficient access to goods and equipment through centres close to the border, even during the reconstruction process.
Zsolt Spander, Director of the Hajdú-Bihar County Tax and Customs Directorate of the NAV, said that taxpayers will be the main beneficiaries of this pilot project. He added that in the complex that will be built in the North-West Industrial Park, in addition to the legal rest period for trucks, customs will be able to carry out the necessary procedures to a standard that few customs authorities in the country can match.
Ferenc Kun, Managing Director of DIF., said that the government decision had been published, and the government had thus provided the resources. “We still have to sign a grant agreement with the Ministry of Construction and Transport, and once the cooperation agreement is signed, the joint work will begin. We hope to be able to report that construction will start around mid-2024. The year 2025 is the year when the office building can be handed over to the NAV staff,” he pointed out.
Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu
