site.btaGERB Leader Borissov Demands Finance Ministry Reveal Outstanding 2024 Expenditures by Early Next Week

GERB leader Boyko Borissov said on Facebook on Saturday that the Finance Ministry must clarify by early next week which 2024 expenditures have been deferred to 2025, ahead of the upcoming Joint Governance Council meeting.

Borissov made the statement after meeting with mayors and municipal council chairs from the Veliko Tarnovo region.

"The need for a regular government is undeniable, but as leader of the largest party and mandate holder, I will not allow false data about the country's financial situation to be reported to our European partners," Borissov said.

Borissov criticized the Finance Ministry’s recent statement that the 2024 budget had been executed as planned, arguing that it deliberately fails to mention key details. He pointed out that the report specifies in small print that the figures are presented on a cash basis, meaning only what has actually been paid.

"Nowhere does it say what happens to invoices that have been issued but remain unpaid, or to those that firms were told to delay issuing until 2025 because there was no money to cover them," he wrote.

The Finance Ministry must provide answers, he said, not just Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, but also everyone involved in drafting the country's budgets over the past four years, referring to former finance minister and current MP from Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria Assen Vassilev and his team.

Borissov insisted the Finance Ministry must provide full disclosure on BGN 3 billion in obligations from 2024 that have been shifted to 2025.

"Why were municipalities misled, despite my repeated warnings not to start excavation works or new projects due to the lack of secured funding in the budget? Mayors were promised BGN 7 billion that does not exist, and in 2024 they only received BGN 500 million. Another BGN 500 million was transferred to the 2025 budget, and the same applies to the Regional Development Ministry and the National Railway Infrastructure Company. Why is no one talking about BGN 800 million in unpaid VAT refunds to businesses?" Borissov asked.

He added that these are the issues that concern him, noting that as per Eurostat data, Bulgaria’s deficit for the first nine months of 2024 was 3.7%.

"We want stable public finances, we want the eurozone, we want municipal and state projects to be developed, we want income growth, we want taxes to remain unchanged—this is what we want. But in 2024, the necessary expenditures were not made and were instead pushed to 2025 just to make the numbers add up," Borissov said.

"For years, I warned about the consequences of taking weekly loans of BGN 500 million. Now the entire burden falls on us," Borissov told the mayors at the meeting.

He firmly insisted that appointments in the new government, including deputy ministers and regional governors, should only begin after the adoption of the 2025 State Budget.

Borissov also urged coalition partners to stop making promises of social benefits before the final fiscal stability reports are ready and to refrain from budget manipulations for political gain.

Earlier in the week, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova stated that the 2025 State Budget Bill would not include tax increases, wage or pension cuts, or reductions in municipal funding. She emphasized that stabilizing public finances remains a top priority, adding that the past three years have been marked by poorly managed public finance policies.