The caretaker government will submit a draft law on the collection of revenues and the implementation of expenditures for 2025 until the adoption of the Law on the State Budget and the Budgets of the Social Insurance Institution and the NHIF today to the National Assembly registry. This was announced at a briefing after the meeting of the Council of Ministers by the caretaker Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova.
She emphasized that the priority of the caretaker government is fiscal stability and sustainable public finances.
The caretaker government takes responsibility for the state not to be in chaos and for there to be a legal framework and order, and to ensure the normal functioning of the state. The draft law has been prepared and will be submitted to the National Assembly today, Petkova said.
The Finance Minister explained that the bill regulates all the amounts, indicators, bases, and procedures that are in the 2024 budget. That is, they will be in effect until the adoption of the 2025 budgets.
In her words, the so-called extension law is not regulated by law anywhere, neither in the Constitution nor in the Public Finance Act. This law was accepted as a crisis measure, Petkova added.
She stated that the Ministry of Finance discussed the form of the law to be submitted - it cannot be an extension law.
If a similar draft was submitted in previous years, it cannot be submitted for 2025, since in 2024 The structure of the State Budget Law is different compared to previous years. There are laws adopted on remuneration in the higher education system, defense, which, with an extension law, means derogating from the actions of these laws, explained the Minister of Finance.
She recalled that when there is no law adopted by the beginning of the next year, three provisions are in force that refer to the three budgets.
“Although there is a regulated legal framework, we found that there are legal gaps. According to the provisions of para. 1 of art. 87 of the Public Finance Law, when a budget has not been adopted by the end of the previous year, revenues are collected in accordance with the current legislation, and expenditures are in the amount of the collected revenues in accordance with the adopted laws and the decisions of the Council of Ministers“, the Minister of Finance also said.
The provision itself does not contain a principle for prioritizing expenditures. This necessitated the drafting of this law, consistent with the three legal provisions of Art. 87 of the Public Finance Act, Art. 29 of the Social Security Act and Art. 19 of the Social Security Code, commented Petkova.
“The law provides for prioritization of expenses. Priority is given to payments for pensions, social benefits and salaries“, she also pointed out.