The realities are not that bad. Every year, revenues jump between 5 and 7 billion leva, but not by 20 billion leva and we must be realistic.
This is how Assoc. Prof. Shteryo Nozharov, a lecturer at the University of National and World Economy and an advisor to the Bulgarian Association of Industrialists, commented on the draft budget 2025 in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.
He recommended for the budget "we should calculate the expenditure part adequately to the revenues – not only salaries, but also maintenance of departments and a capital program in 3 parts with priorities".
"We must be realistic and take into account trends. We have a trend for the revenue side and we must bring it into line with the expenditure side. What the ECB and our partners want to see are measures towards fiscal consolidation, and this budget lacks such measures. That is, optimizing the activities of sectors such as healthcare and education. If this is done, the budget will look different", Nozharov believes.
In the program "Something More" he commented:
"There is optimization of revenues and there is an attempt to optimize expenses - there is no such attempt. Improving the quality and efficiency of individual sectors such as "healthcare" and "education" has not been done. On the contrary, higher salaries are being set. The fourth criterion - there is no control over the debt, on the contrary, it is increasing. Even the annual debt ceiling is increasing from 11.7% to 16.9% - it is going in the opposite direction. The fifth criterion - the fiscal reserve, with such a strong increase in the expenditure part of the consolidated fiscal program - the budgets of the National Social Security Institute and the National Health Insurance Fund, and the large budget remains at the same level. We have five criteria, only one has been attempted to be changed, the others are in a bad direction".
He is convinced that even if the deputies work and the Christmas holidays are shortened, it is purely technologically impossible to consider and adopt the budget by the end of the calendar year.
And he added that the budget is pro-inflationary:
"Many of the measures to optimize revenues are pro-inflationary. The budget in no way stimulates economic growth, it hinders it. This, besides being a bad signal to investors, has no incentive measures. Thirdly, it shows that efficiency will not be sought in the public administration and the public sector, and this increases the gross average wage. And this affects the costs and expenses of companies.
Nozharov pointed out that this draft budget, if it does not increase income in the public sector, would cast doubt on the revenue part of the NSSI and NHIF, because this is already set as average income and thus all three budgets are hanging.
"All three budgets should be recalculated, not just the large one," recommended the lecturer at the UNWE.