site.btaParliament Passes Revisions Obliging Parties to Return Overpaid State Subsidies

June 14 (BTA) - The National Assembly Friday adopted
conclusively amendments to the Political Parties Act obliging
parties to return overpaid state subsidies for the period after
May 26, 2016. The total sum that MPs have to return is 14.6
million leva.

The subsidies for this period will be recalculated in accordance
 with the latest legislative revisions, meaning a reduction by
6.5 million leva for a year for the account of future subsidies.
 

The amendments to the Political Parties Act were proposed by the
 Government after on May 20 TV talk show host Slavi Trifonov
showed that the state subsidies to parties paid out in 2018 were
 6.5 million leva in excess of the amount that should have been
provided. This put "the price" of a valid vote won at the latest
 parliamentary elections at 13.23 leva instead of the legally
established standard of 11 leva. At first reading of the
revisions on June 12, the National Assembly reduced the state
subsidies to 1 lev per valid vote won at the latest
parliamentary elections effective from July 1 to December 31,
2019.

Subsidies are available to the parties and coalitions which won
at least 1 per cent of the votes at the latest parliamentary
elections.

Approached for comment, GERB Floor Leader Daniela Daritkova told
 journalists these revisions were logical and expected by the
entire society. The state budget will not be affected, she
added. 

Movement for Rights and Freedoms Floor Leader Mustafa Karadayi
commented that a check should be carried out. "The Finance
Ministry should give a more precise answer to what and how has
been calculated over the years. [...] We expect to be acquainted
 with their calculations. We will make calculations, too," he
said.

Valeri Simeonov, leader of the NFSB party within the United
Patriots parliamentary group, said that it was normal to adopt
these amendments unanimously. "Otherwise politicians would look
like villains, cheats, and so on," he commented.
       
RY/DS


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