The government will not take away citizens' rights and will not reduce their incomes, despite the need for serious measures to stabilize public finances. This was stated by Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Galab Donev at the presentation of Budget 2026., quoted by Nova TV.
According to him, the state budget is the most important policy of any government, as it affects all members of society. He emphasized that the state treasury is in a difficult situation as a result of ill-considered financial decisions in recent years. “The expected reasons for the significant deficit are due to accumulated imbalances, especially in personnel costs, social payments, the public sector and compensations for businesses and households. At the same time, the revenue side of the budget remains unchanged or one-off measures have been applied to partially cover up the deficits“, said Donev.
According to him, revenues have long lagged behind expenditures, and the European Commission has confirmed these findings. Currently, the budget deficit is excessive and reaches 7.4 percent.
Changes in the insurance of civil servants
The Minister of Finance announced that civil servants will gradually begin to pay their personal insurance contributions. From August 1, 2026, the insurance burden will be distributed in a ratio of 80 to 20 between the employer and the employee. From January 1, 2027, the ratio will be equalized with that for the rest of the workers - 60 percent for the insurer and 40 percent for the insured person.
“It should be clearly known that these changes will be compensated through remuneration, so as to preserve the achieved net income of employees“, emphasized Donev.
No freezing of the minimum wage
The minister rejected the claims that the government plans to freeze the minimum wage for three years. “This is completely false. We are creating a mechanism by which the new minimum wage for 2027 will be determined“, he said.
Limiting public sector salaries
According to Donev, part of the salaries in the public sector will be reviewed. Among the measures is limiting the costs of so-called elective positions, whose salaries are indexed according to the growth of the average salary. According to him, this will lead to savings of 564 million euros in 2026.
The government is also preparing restrictions on the salaries of directors and members of the management bodies in state-owned enterprises and companies with over 50 percent state participation. Their salaries are not expected to exceed the president's salary.
More funds for education, healthcare and municipalities
The government plans additional spending on healthcare, education and culture. An additional 600 million euros have also been provided for the municipalities' investment program. The total resource for municipal initiatives is estimated at 1.108 billion euros.
Regarding investment policy, Donev announced that capital expenditures this year will reach 9.36 billion euros, and European funding will amount to 5.331 billion euros, including projects under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
More revenues through insurance, tolls and gambling
Among the measures to increase revenues is the increase in the maximum social security income from August 1, 2026 to 2,300 euros. The expected additional revenue is just over 90 million euros.
An increase in the minimum insurance thresholds for certain economic activities and professions with higher growth than the minimum wage is also planned. This measure is expected to generate around 40 million euros in additional revenue.
A 30 percent increase in vignette fees is also planned from August 1, 2026, as well as an expansion of the toll system, which will bring in approximately 53 million euros.
An additional 100 million euros are expected from a 10 percent tax on gambling profits of game participants.
“The revenue measures are aimed at limiting the shadow economy and creating a fairer competitive environment“, the Finance Minister emphasized.
Goal: Deficit below 3 percent by 2028
According to Donev, the government's main goal is to gradually reduce the budget deficit to below 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2028. "With the measures taken, we aim to reduce the deficit from the current 7.4 percent to 5.7 percent by 2026," he said.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Rumen Radev sharply criticized the financial policy of previous administrations, presenting the main highlights of the draft state budget for 2026. He confirmed that the deficit set in the budget will be over 3% of GDP and criticized his political opponents. “All those who brought the deficit to 7.5% now have claims that we should make a budget with a deficit of 3%. And why not below 3%? Why not 2% without new debt? Of course it is possible“, said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister was categorical that the government does not envisage reducing the incomes of workers. He also rejected calls for mass layoffs in the state administration.
With the changes to the 2026 Budget, the government aims to fill at least part of the hole in the treasury.