site.btaUPDATED On First Reading, Parliament Extends 2022 Budget into 2023

On 127-2 votes and 90 abstentions, Parliament voted on first reading to extend into 2023 the application of the 2022 State Budget Act, as well as the budgets of the Public State Social Insurance and the National Health Insurance Fund. Prime Minister Galab Donev, Labour Minister Lazar Lazarov and Finance Minister Rositza Velkova were in the plenary hall during the debates that lasted five hours.

The bill on the budget extension was submitted to the legislature by the caretaker government.

The extension will ensure funding for social and other payments by the State, as well as the application of policies and measures set out in a budget revision of July 1, 2022, the caretaker Cabinet says in its reasoning.

The bill will allow all systems to function until a regular government drafts a budget based on its governance programme. 

Wages, pensions and social payments will continue to be paid at the levels applicable as of December 2022. Arrangements have been made to ensure all payments under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the EU-funded operational programmes. The budget also has appropriations for emergency costs (natural disasters, health crises, migration pressure, etc.).

With no ruling majority in the present legislature, the fiscal position of Bulgaria remains what it was proposed and approved by the last Parliament-appointed government and Parliament.