Parliament adopts provisional budget law at first reading

Members of Parliament have passed on first reading an interim law that will remain in effect until the state budget, the budget for the National Health Insurance Fund, and the budget for social security are approved. Lawmakers will have three days to propose amendments to the law. In the meantime, the difficulties with payments in the state will persist.

The Ministry of Finance has warned that the interim law on revenues and expenditures should not be used for more than three months, as it could lead to significant deficits. Members of the "We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) coalition plan to propose stricter controls on government spending by the Ministry of Finance between the two readings of the bill.

• Budget Committee in Parliament approved budget extension law

"Currently, there is no restriction on what expenditures the Council of Ministers can fund and how," said Assen Vassilev from WCC-DB. "There was such a text in the extension law proposed by Minister Velkova and adopted at the end of 2022. We intend to propose a similar text to limit these powers of the Council of Ministers, he added.

MP Martin Dimitrov from WCC-DB added, "There is no reason why Parliament shouldn't be consulted on additional spending. We expect the government to propose necessary expenditures in this chamber for approval."

Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Lyudmila Petkkova defended the draft bill, highlighting the need for certain payments related to defence that should be made to avoid penalties.

"Until the adoption of the 2025 budget, there are some defence-related payments that need to be paid because the state is suffering interest and penalties. This is not an indiscriminate spending and it is not a blank cheque that you provide to the Council of Ministers."

Representatives from "MRF – New Beginning" urged caution regarding the amendments to avoid an overwhelming number of proposals, which could hinder the legislative process.

"Let’s carefully examine what can and cannot be proposed, because we are not in the hypothesis of adopting the budget at second reading. We should avoid a scenario where 200-300 proposals come in, and in the budget committee, we reject them because they are inadmissible," commented Yordan Tsonev.

The "BSP - United Left" demanded more guarantees that the municipalities will not be left without money.

"The rules established in Article 98 of the Public Finance Act regarding the work of municipalities in the absence of an adopted state budget no longer correspond to the conditions of the current environment," said Vladimir Georgiev.

The DRF-MRF reminded that there is no problem with the minimum wage and its amount, but rather there is a misunderstanding of the law by the municipalities.

"There is no such problem, I emphasize it thickly. Municipalities have the right to conclude contracts for the next year and the minimum wage size cannot be different from BGN 1,077," said Hasan Ademov.

"Vazrazhdane" party pushed for the immediate consideration of the state budget instead of the interim law, with MP Tsoncho Ganev criticizing the delay, attributing it to ongoing coalition negotiations.

During today's discussion, most MPs did not speak about the substance of the extension law, but spoke mainly about the parameters of the budget, which they refuse to consider for now. Some of the parties were even ready to change their position.

"We are open to discussing the excess profit tax on banks, and we are inclined to support it because we see logic behind such a proposal. As for aligning concession remunerations with the average European levels, we are also open to discussing it and are inclined to support it," said Martin Dimitrov, WCC-DB.

Additionally, the Speaker of Parliament, Natalia Kiselova, met with business representatives, who urged for the swift adoption of the full state budget, as many pressing issues cannot be resolved with temporary legislative measures.