site.btaUPDATED Government-backing Parties Say Draft Budget Is "Not Revolutionary, but Real", Opposition Says It Is "Illusory, Antisocial, Lacking Reforms"

According to the leading parties in Parliament, the 2023 State Budget Bill "is not revolutionary, but it is real". The opposition criticized the lack of reforms in the Bill, and described it as "illusory and antisocial". MPs' debates in Parliament on the 2023 State Budget Bill at first reading lasted over six hours on Wednesday. 

GERB-UDF MP Temenuzhka Petkova said that her parliamentary group will support the draft budget, because Bulgaria needs a budget and a "normal" ending of the year 2023. She noted that regarding a 2024 State Budget Bill, her party will be particularly demanding towards it, requiring important reforms. GERB-UDF appreciates the 2023 draft budget has a deficit of 3% and the main goal of Bulgaria joining the euro area, not at the expense of raising taxes and cutting social payments, Petkova said, but also expressed reservation. The party’s first major reservation concerns inflation, she pointed out. In her words, this draft budget does not clarify the steps that should be taken to bring inflation down to levels that would allow Bulgaria to apply for the euro area. Petkova noted that there are risks that payments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) will not be implemented. Another reservation is on education spending, since as a percentage of GDP it is declining, she added. She said that according to the draft budget, the energy sector would again bear the brunt of the crisis. Petkova commented that revenues are overestimated and asked for a restructuring of spending so that it is directed towards activities that guarantee growth.

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) MP Ivaylo Shotev said that the draft budget “is not revolutionary, but rather real and feasible”. According to him, it is not a belt-tightening budget, and despite the crises and fears, people will receive what is promised to them. The MP noted that pensions will increase by 12%, which according to him is higher than the current inflation, and doctors, nurses and teachers will also get a raise. 

According to Vazrazhdane MP Dimo Drenchev, the envisaged GDP growth is “a bit optimistic”. He said that the budget is feasible, but unfortunately it lacks reforms and a decrease in the number of state workers. 

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) MP Yordan Tsonev noted that after three years of political crisis, in two of which five elections were held, and severe political instability, Bulgaria has almost doubled its public debt in two years. He pointed out that obviously one of the main objectives of this budget is to bring the deficit down to 3%, but it is not at all related only to the euro area. According to him, the measures taken by the government are also aimed at lowering the risk of a debt crisis. Tsonev commented that in some committees the MRF had voted "against" or "abstained", but the additional political analysis they had done in recent days had led them to think that it was better to support this budget. MRF’s support is with the aim to end the political crisis. “Better to support and stabilize somehow this government, whether we like it or not, to try to correct it, to give an opportunity in the autumn to compose a more reformist budget and to move towards normality,” Tsonev said.

BSP for Bulgaria MP Rumen Gechev said his party will not back the draft budget, which has a wrong philosophy and does not meet European standards. Gechev noted that for the first time in Bulgaria's recent history, ten out of twenty-some parliamentary committees voted against the budget. He noted that the planned increase in pensions is 12% and this social package only partially compensates for inflation. Gechev pointed out that a 3% deficit cannot be a benchmark since there are no guarantees that Bulgaria will enter the eurozone. 

BSP leader Korneliya Ninova said that the measures the government is proposing to lighten the economy are blocking the work of small and medium-sized companies. She believes that the draft budget is anti-social, freezing incomes in the face of rising prices.

There Is Such a People (TISP) MP Grozdan Karadzhov said that his party will not vote in favour of the draft budget, because it is “illusory”. He pointed out that BGN 1.7 billion more VAT revenues are planned and asked where this optimism comes from. Karadzhov noted that BGN 1.5 billion of revenue is set for the NRRP, which, in order to be obtained, the country has to meet tough conditions. On the revenue side, there are about BGN 4.5 billion that will never reach the treasury, and this makes the whole budget "a phantasmagoria" that TISP cannot support, Karadzhov concluded.