03.12.2012

The Government can support the businesses with seven measures next year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov said at the Seventh Annual Meeting between the businesses and the Government "The Big Issues for 2013". One of those is to have a realistic state budget. According to Djankov that means the budget to be feasible and that these are the state finances that will be voted by Parliament this week. He added that as of the moment the expenditure not paid by the state administration to businesses was around BGN 135 million, and the not refunded VAT by the NRA was BGN 210 million. For comparison Djankov quoted 2009 data when the present Government found around BGN 2.3 billion of expenditure not paid to businesses and around BGN 700 million of not refunded VAT.

Among the other measures announced by the Minister of Finance were reducing red tape and timely payment by the state to the businesses. He reminded the introduced by the amendments to the tax legislation single payment order which would facilitate payments by the businesses to the state and the 30-day period within which the state should pay its counterparts. Among the measures is also to stimulate the administration to work for the businesses and to support the companies to enter new international markets.

Another important measure according to Djankov is Bulgaria to develop as a tourist destination. This is crucial for the state because tourism contributes to GDP rise of around 1 - 1.5% annually. According to Djankov all ministers must declare what reforms they intend to implement by the end of 2013 if they were to keep their positions.