Warnings of a deficit of over 5%, inflation, but also an increase of 6 billion in the revenue side compared to last year. All this against the backdrop of the upcoming budget procedure. The topic was commented on by the president of the CITUB Plamen Dimitrov in the program “Offensive with Lyubo Ognyanov” on NovaNews.
“Forecasts on paper quite often turn out to be wrong. In this case, our tax forecasts are also tight, since we wanted to get into the three percent deficit. The incorrectly planned tax revenues are also a problem”, commented Dimitrov. He described the country's capital program as “unprecedented”.
”If the program is implemented, we will be able to cover the shortfalls in tax collection by the end of the year as a buffer. There is no need to be pessimistic - we are headed towards entering the eurozone, and some countries have had larger deficits, albeit for a short time”, he explained. In his words, a budget deficit, resolved for a short time, would not lead to the most extreme and negative scenarios for the country.
According to Dimitrov, the funds for energy that our country is planning should be invested in programs important for the development of the sector.
”It is not good to use taxes as a magic wand. It is appropriate to balance the deficit to 3% for the next year, and this can be done by regulating the collection rate and the mechanisms for taxation. Raising VAT, for example, is easy and possible, but it will be harmful – thus, through an indirect tax, we will make the poor even poorer”, Dimitrov also said.