If there is no adopted budget for 2025. or refuses to accept one, there will be a shut down on January 19, i.e. government in all its dimensions stops working – schools, hospitals, services. Everything that is financed from the budget stops. This is what the president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (KNSB) Plamen Dimitrov told journalists in response to a question from BTA whether there will be enough time for the parliament to adopt the draft budget for 2025. until the end of December and whether it is possible to extend the current budget. In his words, there must be a law on the state budget for next year. Dimitrov made his comment before the start of the international forum "Living wage - a tool for reducing inequalities and poverty", which is being organized today at the trade union's headquarters in Sofia.
Dimitrov shared that unofficially experts have expressed an opinion to him that in the absence of a new budget, the hypothesis will not be valid in January 2025. to spend 1/12 of last year's budget. January 2025 we will be able to spend as much as we have collected as revenue in January 2024, he explained. The experts have made a report and say that it will take until January 18 for the state to function, explained Dimitrov.
To a clarifying question, would only the growth of the minimum wage be guaranteed in the absence of a regular budget for next year, the president of the KNSB said: It is guaranteed through the decree of the Council of Ministers, but it is not guaranteed as funding.
I think that the parliamentary clock should be stopped sooner, Dimitrov also commented. He said that the Speaker of the Parliament Nataliya Kiselova has expressed readiness to work on adopting the new budget. According to him, it is possible to work between Christmas and New Year or at the beginning of January, considering that “it is still December” in order to adopt a new budget.
For the first time in a long time, we have a 10% horizontal policy on incomes for everyone who is paid by the government, except for those to whom the parliament decided to give more and in a different way, Dimitrov also said about the parameters of draft budget for 2025 This income policy is desperately needed, he emphasized. We believe that income growth follows the movement of the average salary, Dimitrov added. According to him, the increase follows the labor market. There is no dramatic increase in costs, it is not unreasonable, according to the president of KNSB.
Plamen Dimitrov stated that the proposed tax on underground wealth is not accepted. He revealed that another idea was being considered. “Or it will be accepted, but not 900 million, but 130-140 million, that is where some consensus is going, which is taking the form not as a tax, but as commission fees paid in advance for 2025, which can then be deducted“, explained Dimitrov.
The president of the Central Committee of the Central Committee commented that he does not understand why some politicians are surprised by the draft budget, since, in his words, some of the things are due to what the deputies have adopted in previous months. To a question for the speech of the former finance minister and co-chairman of the PP Asen Vassilev, Dimitrov said: I will ask how the PP-DB votes in March, when the salary increase for Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense, and how it votes in the summer, when the law on higher education is voted on. I will ask the same to GERB, from where they also criticize, he added.
Plamen Dimitrov stated that he does not accept the position of the BNB regarding the draft budget. According to him, the considerations of the Central Bank should have been directed to the parliament and not to the official cabinet.
BTA recalls that yesterday the Council of Ministers adopted the drafts of the Law on the State Budget of Bulgaria for 2025, the Law on the Budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the Law on the Budget of the State Social Insurance (DOO). Earlier the same day, an extraordinary meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation took place, at which trade unions and business representatives expressed their position on the proposals in the three budgets.