site.btaPM Glavchev: Caretaker Government Plans No Budget Update or Tax Increase

No budget update is foreseen, no tax increase is foreseen within the budget procedure that is being drafted in the Ministry of Finance, caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said during Question Time in the National Assembly on Friday.

He was replying to Yordan Todorov, Vazrazhdane MP, who asked whether urgent measures should not be taken regarding the budget, as in his opinion the State is heading towards a catastrophe and bankruptcy of the people because of taking on new State debt. The MP asked Glavchev whether he would continue the policy of increasing the State debt and quoted a forecast by the Ministry of Finance, according to which, if State spending is not restructured, the country will have to resort to new debt of BGN 18 billion in the future.

"We are moving absolutely within the framework and within the parameters of the budget adopted by the National Assembly,” Glavchev stressed and assured that there is no danger of the catastrophes that Todorov described. “We will present to you a draft budget that is approved by the National Assembly if our government is still in power,” the caretaker Prime Minister said.

About the national debt, Glavchev said, "We should not brag about taking on new debt, but it is the only way to offset a deficit." According to him, either new debt should be taken on, or spending should start to shrink.