site.btaUPDATED 2024 State Budget Not Backed by All Social Partners, Finance Minister Hopes It Will Go Through in Legislature by Dec. 22 after Adjustments

The 2024 state budget bill was not backed by all social partners on Tuesday. The Cabinet will hold an extraordinary meeting on November 24 to consider the objections of the unions and the employer organizations to the proposed state budget and the budgets of the National Health Insurance Fund and the State Social Insurance, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said at a news briefing here Tuesday after a meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation. His expectation is for the three budgets to go through in the legislature by December 22.  

Taking a reporter’s question about the unions’ demands for more funding for pay raise in the public sector, Vassilev said: “ The Finance Minister is not a magician. To provide more funding for something, he needs to take it from something else. It does not come out of thin air."

He also said that although the minimum wage in Bulgaria will become BGN 933 from January 1, 2024, it will remain the lowest in the region.  

The social partners' positions

During the debate, the unions commented that there is an expectation of extra money for salaries in a number of sectors. 

On Monday, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria said it wanted between BGN 600 and 700 million in extra funding for salaries. The union believes that there is underfunding for workers in health, education, agriculture and urban transport.

The Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AICB) commented during the meeting of the tripartite council that they see a retreat from the reform ambitions, which is why they are not going to back the draft state budget. The Bulgarian Industrial Association followed suit. The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said it was willing to support the budget. The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria would not give its overall approval although there are things in the budget bill they approve of. The Union for Private Economic Enterprise would not back the state budget bill.

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CICSB) supports the project, but conditionally. Saying that they meant no arm-twisting, the union's president Plamen Dimitrov said that workers in several sectors are ready for protest actions. He pointed to wage growth expectations in some sectors such as agriculture and transport. The Podkrela Confederation of Labour supports the draft state budget.