site.btaFinance Ministry Says Assen Vassilev Uses Incorrectly January-March Revenue Data

Assen Vassilev uses incorrectly revenue data from an analysis of the Finance Ministry for the period January - March 2025, said the Finance Ministry in a statement.

The Finance Ministry's analysis of the projected parameters on revenues, expenditures, transfers and Bulgaria's contribution to the EU budget and budget balance refers to the state budget and not to the consolidated fiscal programme (CFP), the release said.

The ministry specifies that the state budget estimates, including tax revenues, exclude the budgets of the public social insurance and the national health insurance fund, which receive revenues from insurance contributions.

The figures quoted by Mr Vassilev on January 28 (BGN 4.455 billion) represent tax and insurance revenues under the CFP, where insurance receipts are included. Therefore, a decrease of BGN 750 million from the previous year is inaccurate, the Finance Ministry's statement said.

The data on the budget balance quoted by Mr Vassilev also refer to the CFP, not the state budget, which makes them incomparable, the ministry said.

The Finance Ministry reacted to Assen Vassilev's statement that if only tax and social security revenues are looked at, in January 2024 revenues were BGN 4.435 billion or BGN 750 million more than the Finance Ministry's forecasts.

"Given that we have an increased minimum wage, correspondingly higher social security contributions, we have an increase in the VAT rate for restaurants and the VAT rate for bread, why this January will we collect 750 million less revenue than last January," Vassilev told reporters yesterday.