site.btaCabinet to Allocate Nearly BGN 35 Mln for Supplement to 700,000 Pensioners below Poverty Line

The Council of Ministers will adopt a decision that will allocate nearly BGN 35 million from the Public Social Insurance budget for an Easter supplement to nearly 700,000 pensioners who live below the poverty line, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said at the beginning of the government meeting here on Wednesday. He specified that the funds were in line with the budget's possibilities.

Zhelyazkov said: "In spite of all the ill-intentioned comments on this matter, I want to assure our compatriots that this is a token of compassion that is extended not by the government or the state but by the Bulgarian public, so that [the pensioners can] the bright Easter holidays can be celebrated."

The supplement will amount to BGN 50, Minister of Finance Temenuzhka Petkova said in late March.