MRZ is income from labor and cannot be part of social payments that do not concern the labor market. You can't work and treat that as a poverty line. The real indicator is the living wage, and let's sit down and come up with such a definition and level methodology.
Raising insurance is a necessity, but it should happen smoothly and people won't feel it. The increase should be 1 point in 20 years. The minimum wage for 2025 it will be BGN 1077. and the unions will not give in to freeze the wage increase by 10% in the coming year.
This was stated by Luboslav Kostov, Chief Economist of KNSB, in an interview on the show "Sunday 150". of the BNR.
He shared that they had 3-4 meetings with Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova and believes that the revenue measures proposed by her have party support and will bring in between 8 and 9 billion. BGN additional income.
"Raising insurance by one point leads to 600 mln. BGN revenues. We have proposed over 10 measures that do not change direct taxes, such as the EU Excess Profits Regulation, which is not just for banks. I think we can make a reasonable policy for incomes to grow between 9 and 10%. We do not agree to postponing salary increases, which by law should lead to 10%. MRZ should be decoupled from social payments and not tied to the poverty line. So that we don't have working poor", comments Luboslav Kostov.
He pointed out that 3.7 billion were spent on the Capital Program until September. BGN of the planned 10 billion BGN Also, education spending is down 0.3% compared to 2023, but defense spending is rising, and that's understandable.
"As an absolute value, prices are higher and we can see real purchasing power. To come out and say what is the priority. Income should not be held hostage to political intrigue. Bulgaria currently has the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio this year. We collect 40%, if it's 50%, that's 1.200 billion. BGN We need a debate about the tax system and how we redistribute. We need realistic planning and more investment. Let's not rejoice when the Capital Program is not implemented, because it is used as a buffer. Every year, revenues are underestimated, expenses are overestimated, and the balance is not even like the one adopted by the parliament," commented the KNSB economist.