Budget Committee adopts revenue and expenditure bill at second reading

The Budget Committee in Parliament on January 14 approved at second reading the draft law on revenues and expenditures, which will remain in effect until the adoption of the State Budget for this year.

It is expected that the draft law will be presented in the plenary at second reading. If adopted and promulgated in the State Gazette, the new Law on Revenues and Expenditures will take effect retroactively from January 1.

During today’s sitting, the proposals from "We Continue the Change" to restrict the possibilities for capital expenditure by the Council of Ministers were rejected.

The "MRF-New Beginning" party again attempted to push through an extension of the reduced VAT rate for restaurateurs. The same proposal was also made for bread. This proposal was rejected only a week ago by the Budget Committee.

Both proposals were deemed inadmissible under the committee's ruleas, and as a result, the admissibility of these proposals had to be voted on first. The proposals were not allowed to be considered.

The We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) group proposed a reduction in the planned salary increases in the Ministry of Interior, suggesting that they should be calculated based on regional averages rather than the national average salary. However, this proposal was also found to be inadmissible.

A proposal from WCC-DB to introduce a transit fee for Russian gas passing through Bulgaria’s territory was also ruled inadmissible. A similar fee was introduced years ago, but Bulgaria was forced to delay its implementation.

The Bulgarian Oil and Gas Association has again raised the issue of a change in the fuel law, which assumes that ethers are a biocomponent. Otherwise, Bulgaria could be without petrol from 1 March. The proposal was also passed as unacceptable in committee.

The Bulgarian Petroleum and Gas Association once again raised the issue of amending the fuel law to allow ethers to be considered bio-components. Without such an amendment, Bulgaria could face a shortage of petrol starting March 1. This proposal was also deemed inadmissible by the committee.

“We conducted an analysis of the expected revenues for January. Actually, the revenues are expected to fully cover the transfers to municipalities, wages, pensions, transfers to the social security fund, and contributions to the European Union, with perhaps a small amount left for operating expenses,” said Lyudmila Petkova, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

“We’ve proposed the explicit right for the appointing authority to release individuals who have reached retirement age. We’ve had a specific question for the Minister of the Interior, who hasn’t responded to me for a month, to ensure that this issue is addressed. We know that there are about 5,000 people, and those of us who are trying to keep Bulgaria’s budget deficit under control must realize that if these retirees remain employed in these sectors, we won’t be able to manage,” commented Martin Dimitrov, WCC-DB.

“Given that our country still has the lowest income levels, it would be wise for all of us to agree that the most essential thing around us—the bread—should at least be taxed at the reduced rate. There’s no point in repeating last year’s debate. Many countries, including Germany, have preferential VAT rates for bread,” said Yordan Tsonev, MRF-New Beginning.