site.btaFinance Minister: Bulgaria Can Start 2024 without Budget

Reacting to comments made by President Rumen Radev earlier on Monday, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said that Bulgaria may enter 2024 without a state budget if the President vetoes the Budget Act. “It comes as no surprise since his caretaker cabinet did not propose a budget and this hampered the work of the State and the municipalities,” Vassilev added. “His cabinet presented a draft budget with an 8% deficit as an attempt to hinder Bulgaria's joining the eurozone,” the Minister noted.

Vassilev dismissed Radev's statement that the Finance Minister is planning to sell 70,000 ha of state-owned arable land for BGN 340 million, saying that this is not envisaged by the 2024 draft budget. “This is fake news,” Vassilev said.

“The proposed deficit of 3% of GDP this year is entirely feasible because, at the end of October, the budget deficit was 0.8% and GDP growth this year could be 1.8%. Standard & Poor's raised Bulgaria's outlook at the end of last week,” the Minister recalled.

Gazprom is currently challenging the new fee of BGN 20/MWh for Russian gas import through Bulgaria because at present the company is not a taxable entity, the Finance Minister said. Gazprom will become a taxable entity after legislative amendments, which will allow the company's guarantees of over EUR 1 billion to cover its obligations as a user of Bulgarian infrastructure, Vassilev also said.