site.btaFinance Minister Vassilev: Most Anti-Crisis Measures Were Supported by Employers and Trade Unions

“We are glad that most of the measures were supported by the employers and trade unions”, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said following a meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation on Monday.

Lyuboslav Kostov from the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) said that CITUB supports some of the government-proposed anti-crisis measures and is more reserved towards others. According to CITUB, there are no measures to support the households and compensate their loss of purchasing ability, Kostov argued. He insisted on an increase of incomes of the employees in the state financed sector and increase of the minimal wage to BGN 760 from July 1, 2022.

CITUB believes that there will be no effect of introducing zero VAT on bread and decreasing the standard VAT rate in Bulgaria to the minimum of 15%.

The Head of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AICB), Vasil Velev, said that the inflation in Bulgaria is twice as high as the average in Europe, and the average increase of producer prices is some 40%. He noted that this is the only problem which is not addressed properly. AICB will support or oppose the government-proposed measures depending on whether the inflation problem will be addressed in the next couple of days or not.

In Velev’s words, the high inflation rate reduces the value of people’s incomes and savings and deprives enterprises from the ability to invest. “We are still waiting for a decision about compensations for the electricity prices from July 1, he said.

We are still waiting for the decision to compensate for electricity prices from July 1, Velev said, adding that this will coincide with the EWRC's decision for the new regulatory period.

Vassilev argued that the measures are no pro-inflationary as they do not increase the government budget balance.