site.btaFinance Minister Vassilev: Main Parameters of State Budget Clear and Unchanged

On June 5, the Council of Ministers adopted and sent to Parliament the 2023 State Budget Act, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said at a briefing in the Council of Ministers after the government meeting.

Vassilev pointed out that all social payments have been preserved and some of the measures set by the caretaker cabinet have been upgraded. "We maintain the income policy that the caretaker cabinet had set," the Minister added. Revenues have been increased to match the growth of gross domestic consumption and what the new managements of the Customs and the National Revenue Agency expect to collect within the year," Vassilev said.

The Finance Minister added that the only new thing adopted by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday was an amendment to the Strategy for Management of  State Debt. "The total debt for 2023 has been reduced compared to the previous strategy, as we have a smaller deficit, which will therefore not require as much debt as was envisaged," Vassilev explained. He added that the debt projected for this year totals BGN 7.5 billion, of which BGN 3 billion are payments on old debts. "That is, the new debt we are taking is BGN 4.5 billion," Assen Vassilev informed. He explained that the debt as a percentage of GDP this year will be 22%, at the end of last year it was 21.8%, and at the end of 2021 it was 22.5%. This means that there is no increase in debt as a percentage of GDP, Vassilev said.