“I understood that today Mr. Radev took the liberty of speaking on the topic of the budget, that the treasury is empty and that they are working on the budget. To be completely accurate, I will quote an official press release from May 29 of Radev's Ministry of Finance, which states that they received the treasury on April 30 with 6 billion 803 million 545 thousand euros in the fiscal reserve. This is not an empty treasury“. This was stated by the chairman of “Continuing the Change“ Assen Vassilev in Shumen yesterday, where he participated in the opening ceremony of a major investment by “Alcomet“ in a second rolling mill.
Assen Vassilev explained that of these 6.8 billion euros in the fiscal reserve, 2.2 billion are funds from the Silver Fund and other funds that cannot be withdrawn. That is, about 4.6 billion euros remain, which are available to the government. He made a comparison that when he became Minister of Finance in 2021, he received the treasury with about 4 billion euros, and in 2023 he found about 5 billion euros. “So the treasury has no problems and is not empty“, the former Finance Minister was categorical.
Vassilev also recalled that in the “Petkov“ cabinet, the budget was prepared in 45 days, including Christmas and New Year. And in the “Denkov“ cabinet, the budget was prepared in 30 days and submitted to the National Assembly on July 5, 2023. “We did not make excuses, we did not whine. We sat down, worked and made two good budgets for the Bulgarian economy“, said the leader of “Continue the Change“. In addition, he emphasized that the 2022 budget ended with a 3% deficit and an extremely large anti-crisis package aimed at the most vulnerable groups, businesses and Bulgarian families.
“Among the measures in the 2022 budget, food vouchers were increased to 200 leva, previously they were 80 leva. Tax breaks for children were increased to 600 leva for each child. The threshold for VAT registration for small businesses was raised from 50,000 leva to 100,000 leva. Aid was provided for agriculture, specifically for fertilizers and feed, because they were hit the hardest. A ceiling was set on the price of electricity for businesses so that high electricity prices would not drain business money. Double increases were made in pensions - once in July and once in October so that they could be indexed ahead of time. Kindergartens became free for working families. Textbooks up to the 12th grade became free. Additional aid was allocated for second, third and fourth grade students at the beginning of the school year“, Asen Vassilev listed.
“All this became possible because our main thought was how to support business, how to support working citizens who are most affected, especially those with children, because that is where the expenses are the greatest, and how not to allow the most vulnerable group - pensioners - to remain below the poverty line. And we managed to make this budget with a 3% deficit in a very difficult and complex four-party coalition“, he recalled.
According to him, what we are currently seeing is sole rule by one party. There are no coalition partners, no political problems in preparing the budget. And this one party has not been able to sort out its priorities and write the budget for the second month. “This shows either wrong priorities or an absolute lack of competence. But certainly excuses like “the treasury is empty“ when you received 6.8 billion euros are untenable and offensive to Bulgarian citizens“, said Assen Vassilev.
Regarding the investment by “Alcomet“, Assen Vassilev recalled that during the “Denkov“ cabinet in 2023, for the first time, the state implemented an EU regulation that allows the state to co-finance projects, with part of the funds being returned after the investment is completed. “Alcomet“ is one of the enterprises that have taken advantage of this opportunity. Vassilev pointed out that the “Zhelyazkov“ cabinet had stopped implementing the regulation, and expressed hope that the new cabinet would continue to implement it by supporting investors.
On behalf of “Continuing the Change“ The opening of the new workshop was attended by the deputy chairman of the party, academician Nikolay Denkov, the former economic minister, during whose time the project was started - Bogdan Bogdanov, and the deputy from Shumen, Aylin Pehlivanova.