site.btaUPDATED 2023 State Budget Act Adopted Conclusively after 20 Hours of Debate

The National Assembly adopted the 2023 State Budget Act conclusively on second reading early on Friday morning after a marathon debate lasting more than 20 hours. "Good morning, and congratulations on the budget!" Parliament Chair Rossen Zhelyazkov said in the plenary chamber after the MPs voted the last remaining item from the bill into law. Finance Minister Assen Vassilev thanked the legislators for their work.

Approving the budget framework, the Assembly projected the revenues, aid and donations in 2023 at BGN 40,810,564,600, including BGN 35,559,400,000 in tax revenues, BGN 5,250,664,600 in non-tax revenues and BGN 500,000 in aid and donations.

Expenditures are estimated at BGN 22,252,283,500, with current expenditures expected to amount to BGN 18,553,314,000, including BGN 8,627,894,100 for personnel costs. Capital expenditures are forecast at BGN 3,515,589,900.

The net target value of transfers is set at BGN 22,531,891,500. The amount of transfers provided is BGN 22,545,291,500, including BGN 7,016,289,200 to municipalities, BGN 10,572,946,500 to the public social insurance budget and BGN 2,714,315,800 to the National Health Insurance Fund.

Bulgaria's annual contribution to the budget of the European Union is BGN 2,042,408,200.

The state budget balance is minus BGN 6,016,018,600.

BGN 150 million has been allocated for a 10% rise of the base wages of Interior Ministry employees as of August 1, 2023 and a further increase of the base wages of some categories of Interior Ministry staff by BGN 100 per month.

The State Agency for National Security gets BGN 5.7 million to boost the wages of its employees, and the State Agency for Technical Operations gets BGN 3.7 million. The money has been secured through expenditure cuts and/or reductions of transfers from the central executive budget.

The Assembly resolved that the Council of Ministers may approve an additional transfer of BGN 7,830,000 to the public social insurance budget to raise employee wages in the National Social Security Institute as of August 1, 2023

Emergency medical service centres and regional health inspectorates receive BGN 30 million to raise employees' wages as of August 1, 2023 and to clear overdue payments for social and cultural amenities in these establishments.

Another BGN 1.7 million has been set aside to increase the monthly allowance ("pocket money") of children living in family-type social care homes from BGN 52 to BGN 90. The increase is effective retroactively from January 1, 2023.

The approved state budget scheme also has BGN 2 million for assisted reproduction services, which means BGN 6,000 for each in vitro fertilization attempt instead of the previously provided BGN 5,000.

An additional BGN 7.2 million is available for the development of bilateral and multilateral foreign policy relations, Bulgaria's obligations arising from its membership of international organizations, and support for historical Bulgarian communities abroad.