Some of the channels in the customs are still managed by former people from the services. This is what Simeon Dyankov, former finance minister, told the BNR.
He described customs as "quite a militia organization" and analyzes the resistance to the idea of merging them with the National Revenue Agency in a single revenue agency.
"The moment someone touches these structures and tries to bring them together in one place, there are enough interests to prevent that from happening".
Simeon Dyankov commented on the election of Ludmila Petkova as Finance Minister, made by Dimitar Glavchev.
"I think he is lucky. She knows the ministry, she will do well, especially in terms of tax policy. We noticed her. She worked at the Revenue Agency. She was an excellent student there.
I wouldn't say that she is a person of GERB, she is a person of the Ministry of Finance. We need such people so that amateurs do not enter and are still learning, as was the case with Asen Vassilev.
So far, however, she has been far from the subject of the eurozone. Hopefully he has ideas for a good deputy minister.
Dyankov predicts that one of her first tasks will be "to say exactly where the budget and budget deficit are".
"There is some mystery surrounding how it has been spent in recent months".
He commented on the parliament's decision to limit the finance minister in spending funds except for salaries and pensions.
"This decision undermines the authority of both the finance minister and the entire ministry".
Simeon Dyankov still pointed out that for last year – 2023, about BGN 2.5 billion have not been collected according to the plan.
"Mainly in customs. They fell far behind.
About 4 billion of infrastructure spending did not happen. But still about 2 billion are missing. In my opinion, this happened by artificially transferring some of the expenses to 2024. Petkova and her team will have to find them.
The former finance minister predicts that our country will not enter the Eurozone in 2025.
"Because we do not fulfill one of the basic criteria. 2026 is the earliest possible date.
Until the topic of inflation is covered more comprehensively, we cannot enter".