07.06.2023

“At the Ministry of Finance, we will start working on the draft law on the 2023 state budget which, hopefully, will be submitted to the National Assembly in a few weeks – it will be with a 3% deficit and no increase in taxes,” Minister of Finance Assen Vassilev announced upon taking office in the Ministry of Finance.

As regards the assuming of new debt in the budget, Minister Vassilev said that he should first see the estimates, but added that the deficit currently proposed would decrease and thus the amount of debt should also decrease.

The draft law extending the budget extension law submitted to the National Assembly by the caretaker government has already passed first vote at a meeting of the Committee on Budget and Finance and the Minister of Finance commented that it would need to be adopted in order to ensure time for the adoption of the 2023 budget law, as according to the procedure that would take 5 – 6 weeks.

There are BGN 10 billion in the fiscal reserve and the caretaker government has already submitted a baseline budget with a high deficit, but it will be the basis on which the law could be revised in accordance with the decisions to be taken by the regular cabinet, Former Caretaker Minister of Finance Rositza Velkova said in response to a question about the state of the treasury.