site.btaParliamentary Committee Adds BGN 760 Mln to 2022 Budget Revenue Estimates

At a second-reading debate of the 2022 state budget revision here on Monday, Bulgaria's National Assembly Budget and Finance Committee set the estimated budget revenues at BGN 33.353 billion, up by BGN 760 million in addition to the BGN 2 billion increase expected by the Government. The larger revenues are supposed to come from VAT as a result of inflation-pushed price rises and boosted exports.

The new level was voted through by GERB-UDF, There Is Such a People, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Vazrazhdane despite the objections of Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, who warned that if the revenues are not collected, the government may have to default on its payments during the last quarter.

The Committee approved a 20% pay rise for police personnel, which will cost the public purse an extra spending of BGN 175 million. Another BGN 20 million were allocated for higher schools and BGN 150 million for secondary schools.

The Committee left the excise duties on cigarettes and tobacco unchanged. A zero VAT rate for bread was approved, but a decrease of the VAT rate from 20 to 9% for cooking oil, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products, proposed by GERB and Vazrazhdane, was rejected.

The Committee adjourned its meeting until Tuesday.

The revisions of the 2022 budgets of public social insurance and of the National Health Insurance Fund budget are up for a conclusive second-vote at Tuesday's extraordinary plenary sitting of the full house.