The state's money: Trade unions and employers demand change in tax laws

The submission and adoption of the state budget and tax laws will be delayed again this year. The reason - the caretaker government will wait for a new Parliament to be formed and start negotiations with parliamentary groups.

Today, October 28, at the Tripartite Council, employers and trade unions supported the tax laws in principle, but demanded changes to them. Bulgaria has negotiated an additional extension with Brussels to adopt changes to the Recovery and Resilience Plan in the part concerning coal-fired power plants, the caretaker finance minister announced.

It will cost nearly 400 millionBGN to maintain the lower tax rate for bread and restaurants and currently no such measure is envisaged by the Ministry of Finance in the new budget.

"In principle, the Ministry of Finance has always been against differentiated rates because they create a greater administrative burden," explained caretaker Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova.

Employers mainly opposed changes to the VAT and excise laws. They also proposed to reduce by half the interest on arrears to the state owed by businesses.

"It will reduce the time on taxpayers who are in difficulty and they will be able to pay their public debts more easily," explained Dobrin Ivanov from Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA).

The unions reiterated that they want a radical change of the tax system so that businesses and the rich pay more taxes.

"Today we proposed more than ten measures in the revenue part in the form of additional taxes, which, if accepted by the executive, will raise 4.7 billion BGN extra," said Lyuboslav Kostov of CITUB trade union.

Responding to a question by BNT whether Bulgaria will be able to request extraordinary reports from Brussels on joining the eurozone by the end of the year, the caretaker Deputy Prime Minister said:

"We are monitoring the fulfilment of the last criterion, the expectations are that in November, in December at the latest, the inflation criterion will be fulfilled and the request for the extraordinary reports will be submitted accordingly," the caretaker Finance Minister explained.

Petkova also explained that the country has received a postponement from the European Commission for the changes in the Recovery and Resilience Plan until a new Parliament is elected.

"Any delay in the adoption of the changes means that the investments have to be implemented in a shorter period of time. That is why it is important to discuss the proposed changes again," Petkova added.

The changes include 1 billion BGN for the reclamation in mining areas, which would otherwise have to be paid from the budget.