EU-subsidies to companies with no revenue

Companies that never generated any revenue and offshore businesses were also among the winners of joint European Union-Hungarian state subsidies, according to the list which was published by the Ministry of National Development in an answer to a written parliamentary question. Running an offshore business is legal but it decreases transparency in governance since the owners of the company stay invisible. Qualchem was also on the list which contained 74 companies (Qualchem Vegyiárú és Műanyagalapanyag Gyártó és Forgalmazó Zrt.). Since May 2012 the owner of Qualchem has been the TSEA Holding Ltd, a company registered in a Gibraltar tax haven. The information the ministry released about the funds wired to Qualchem was not consistent with the information published on the National Development Agency’s website. Another company, Mertzon Property Ltd, founded in 2008, has never generated any revenue but won a government subsidy of 119.3 million Hungarian forints for warehouse development in Csepel. According to the details of Mertzon Property Ltd, the shareholders of the company are companies registered in various tax havens.

See the full list of the companies here.