Hungary Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in hungary, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Selling to the Public Sector
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Hungary’s Public Procurement Act CXLIII was passed in 2015.  The law regulates only the various forms of procurement; however, the national thresholds are always contained in the actual Budget Law.  In the case of a general, simplified procurement the national threshold for procurement of goods remains at HUF 8 million (approximately USD 23,000).  For construction, the threshold is HUF 15 million (USD 43,000), and for services, HUF 8 million (USD 23,000).  The national threshold for construction concessions amounts to HUF 100 million (USD 287,000) and HUF 25 million (USD 72,000) for services concessions.

In the case of special simplified public procurement, the national threshold is HUF 50 million (USD 143,500) for procurement of goods and services, and HUF 100 million (USD 287,000) for construction investments.

The EU thresholds require open tenders (published in TED – Tenders Electronic Daily) for purchases of goods and services (except in R&D and telecom) exceeding   EUR 130,000 (about USD 141,000) when procured by Hungary’s Ministries, the Prime Minister’s Office, or the Centralized Public Procurement Agency (CPPA).  For all other central or local government institutions, the open tender threshold for goods and services is EUR 200,000 (about USD 218,000). For construction and construction concessions, the threshold is EUR 5 million (approx. USD 5,443,000) regardless of public entity.

Hungary’s CPPA serves more than 1,000 institutions that receive financing from the Hungarian central budget. The CPPA generally requires procuring agencies to select from a centralized list of specific products and vendors. Tender announcements and decisions by Hungary’s Commission of Arbitrators are published weekly in the Public Procurement Authority of Hungary. The Law on Public Procurement and related regulations, as well as Hungary’s list of certified suppliers for public procurement projects, can also be found on this Hungarian language website.  Information about financing projects, or financing web sources may also be found on the ITA Financing Solutions website.

The number of public procurement procedures dropped by 11% in the first half of 2023 and fell by 50% in value terms to HUF 1.3 trillion (Public Procurement Authority) The decline was caused by the global crisis, the effects of the Russia – Ukraine war and the drastic rise in construction industry prices, which “almost broke the back” of the dynamic growth path that characterized the Hungarian economy. The value of procurement procedures fell most significantly in the construction sector. The number and value of public procurement procedures is expected to increase if EU funds start to arrive.