18.11.2016

"It is good that the majority that had hitherto supported the Government found the strength to enable the state to go ahead without any shocks". This is what the retired Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov said at a briefing at the National Assembly after the members of parliament passed the 2017 State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Bill at first hearing. According to him, should the budget have not been supported at first hearing, there were mechanisms according to which the public finance would have continued functioning. According to Mr. Goranov, however, yesterday's support for the PSS and NHIF budgets at first hearing and the possible rejection of the state budget today would have given rise to a very interesting case of a failure to agree the individual budgets and would have forced the next government to execute miscalculated and controversial financial frameworks. "The budget is the Bulgarian citizens' budget and as long as there are taxpayers, there will be budgets, too. From that point forward it is important who and how will spend the people's money', Minister Goranov said.

"We will not support a change in the tax model and we are of the opinion that the proposal for an increase in the minimum pensions is also unacceptable both from a pension model point of view and from the point of view of the resources it would require", Mr. Goranov added. According to the Minister, the arguments of BSP that when replacing the flat tax with a progressive one the medium class would retain their taxation while the rich would pay higher taxes are not correct. Mr. Goranov also said that "BSP know best how difficult it is to take from the rich" and, according to him, even now the rich pay more than the rest. According to the Finance Minister today's deliberations have shown that all the claims of BSP show that they wanted to change the current taxation model, while the other parties claimed that the present taxation model had to be kept.