The Bulgarian government is preparing measures for quick exit from the crisis that will be adopted in a special law for recovering of the state’s economy. Thus no other changes in legislation will be necessary. An expert team of representatives of almost all ministries, the Central Bank of Bulgaria /BNB/ and independent experts has been created for that purpose. The goal is Bulgarian business to be supported so that the country can get out of the crisis. The plan provides paying of the state debts towards the business and decreasing the insurance burden. The government will rely on the privatization of companies that are still state property and will appear to be a quick income source in these times of crisis. They are evaluated to about EUR 500 mln. The Bulgarian economy will have to count on the maximum absorption of the Euro funds, since foreign investments are too weak now. A rising of the minimum wage for the country is expected after July 1st in order the incomes of the population to become higher.
“We have around 35 measures provided till now, we consider the ideas, coming from independent economists, syndicates and employers – Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov explains. – Some of these ideas concur the ones of the government others appear to be original ones. They all will be discussed with our social partners from the National Trilateral Council and approved by the government and Parliament, so that the necessary legislation changes be made. We expect the adoption of a new Law for support and sustainable growth of the Bulgarian business with a great part of these measures included in it.”
The Bulgarian government has given up the idea to raise the healthcare insurance from 8 to 10% and has adopted the alternative option, supported by the society and experts. The idea is 150 000 state employees to start paying their social security and healthcare insurance that have been paid by the country till now. “There should be equality before the law. Then the society will know where all this money goes to and the leaks will be stopped” Mr Dyankov said and was supported by the PM, who said that “all people are equal”. The suggestion of the government for raising of the healthcare insurance caused the strong negative reaction of the society, syndicates, politicians and economic analysts, who warned that with the increasing of the tax and insurance burden Bulgaria risks to repeat the Greek model of an economic crisis.
“From this point of view countries like Bulgaria have the chance to get out of the crisis more quickly, since they do not increase their tax burden, do not have big deficits and fulfill their fiscal discipline successfully. Moreover, they have the chance for economic growth – Mr Djankov said. – Because all the states with current big budget deficits that will have to increase their taxes within the next years to balance their fiscal position, will slow down their economic recovery. We want not only to get out of the crisis through low taxes, with a focus on the support for the Bulgarian business, but also to take advantage of the possibilities for increasing of the foreign investments. Those investors, who were looking towards the bigger markets of our neighboring countries before the crisis, start to see now Bulgaria as a state with a good fiscal policy and a market, where taxes won’t be increased within the next few years. We hope to attract those investors so that we can get out of the crisis quickly and the Bulgarian economy to continue its growth.”
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
