site.btaOpposition Finds Finance Ministry's Budget Projections Unrealistic

All of the Finance Ministry’s projections for revenue and expenditure in the January budget are unrealistic, unless there is something dramatic in the revenue collapse in the budget that we haven't heard about, former finance minister Assen Vassilev told journalists before a meeting of the Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria Parliamentary Group. Assen Vassilev asked why, with increased VAT rates on restaurants and bread, less revenue is now forecast for January in this year's budget.

For two weeks the Finance Ministry under the new leadership cannot specify how much the revenues and expenditures will be for January. “You will recall initially that Finance Minister Petkova said that revenues would be BGN 3.6 billion, expenditures BGN 3.2 billion, which is a surplus of BGN 400 million. Then it was corrected that revenues would be BGN 3.6 billion and expenditures would be BGN 4 billion, which is a deficit of BGN 400 million, Vassilev said.

In his words, if we look at the tax and social security revenues for January 2024, the revenues are BGN 4.435 billion, i.e. BGN 750 million more than what the Ministry of Finance has forecasted.

Given that we have an increased minimum wage - correspondingly higher social security contributions, we have an increase in VAT rates for restaurants and VAT rates for bread, why this January we will collect BGN 750 million levs less revenue than last year, Vassilev added. He pointed out that in the last four years January has always reported least BGN 400 million in surplus.