site.btaParliament Adopts 2017 State Budget Act

Parliament  Adopts 2017 State Budget Act

Sofia, December 1 (BTA) - Parliament adopted the 2017 State Budget Act on second reading.

The Defence Ministry's expenditures were set at 1,080,267,000 leva, including one billion leva for defence capabilities and 71 million leva for Alliance and international security policies.

The Interior MInistry's budget of 1,233,600,000 leva includes 701,123,700 leva for the fight against crime and the protection of public order, 181,527,800 leva for border security and migration control, 211,952,800 leva for fire safety and population protection, and 138,995,700 leva for the Ministry's management and development.

The Health Ministry's expenditures were set at 458,847,700 leva, including 344,612,500 leva for diagnosis and treatment, 69,145,000 leva for public health promotion, prevention and control, and nearly 28 million leva for medicinal products and medical articles.

The Culture Ministry's appropriation is 157,143,900 leva, of which nearly 18 million leva are earmarked for protection of the cultural heritage.

The vote on the appropriation for education and science was postponed at first because eight MPs of the Budget Committee wanted it to hold an extraordinary meeting Thursday to draw up an additional report on the proposals regarding the Education Ministry's budget and transfers to the higher educational establishments and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). In the end, Parliament allocated an extra 10 million leva to BAS and an extra 500,000 leva to the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. GERB's MPs abstained from voting but the other parliamentary groups voted in favour of these provisions of the 2017 State Budget Bill. As a result, BAS got about 88 million leva and Sofia University was allocated about 52 million leva.

A total subsidy of 2,423,034,200 leva was approved for activities delegated by the State to the municipalities. The total general adjustment subsidy is 274 million leva, the transfer for snow clearing and maintenance of municipal roads is 30,228,100 leva, and the target subsidy for capital expenditures is 154,090,200 leva.

A possible new government debt was capped at 1.2 billion leva. ABV's proposal to rule out any new government debt in 2017 was rejected.

The parties' subsidy remained unchanged at 11 leva per valid vote. A proposed cap of 1.6 million leva on a single party's or coalition's subsidy was voted down.

Parliament approved a one-off 80 per cent reduction of the obligations of beneficiary municipalities outstanding as at December 31, 2016, under programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, etc, arising from financial corrections imposed or interest-free loans from the state budget for projects on which corrections were imposed. This will be done under a trilateral agreement between the municipal mayor, the Finance Minister and the Managing Authority of the relevant operational programme.