Petkov, Ivanov and Borissov: Bulgaria will have a Budget

"There is a common understanding regarding the budget. All the proposals of Finance Minister Asen Vassilev on revenue measures will be accepted and Bulgaria will have a budget that will serve the Bulgarian citizens".

This was announced by the leaders of GERB and "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria": Boyko Borisov, Kiril Petkov and Hristo Ivanov, after an emergency leadership meeting this morning. The agreement was reached following on Tuesday, after an almost 11-hour meeting, the relevant committee in the National Assembly adopted the draft law on the state budget for 2023 in the second reading, rejecting key measures to strengthen tax control, which were recorded by the finance minister Asen Vassilev and which would guarantee part of the revenues in the budget.

The main reason for their rejection was the proposals of GERB, supported mainly by "There Is Such a People" and "Vazrazhdane". All this forced Vassilev to announce at the end of the meeting that he does not support the budget in its current form, and Toshko Yordanov from "There Is Such a People" offered him to resign.

This surprised the (non)coalition partners from "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria", since in mid-July GERB promised the finance minister that they would support the budget as "interim", but would propose additional expenses without violating the financial framework. However, this is not what happened in the departmental budget committee - a number of proposals to increase expenses were accepted, but those aimed at increasing revenues by increasing VAT collection were rejected.

The proposal to pay employees' salaries only by bank transfer was rejected, as this measure was aimed at companies with more than 50 employees, as well as the...