Bulgarian Parliament Upholds Unity in First Reading of 2025 Budget Bills
In a display of unity, Bulgarian MPs successfully navigated the first reading of the special law outlining revenue collection and expenditure for 2025, as well as the drafts for the State Budget, National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), and State Social Security Budget (SSSB) for the same year.
Introduced by the Council of Ministers on the final day of 2024, the bill garnered a resounding 207 ‘yes’ votes, with no opposing or abstaining votes registered. Speaking earlier in the plenary hall, Acting Finance Minister Ludmila Petkova reinforced the caretaker government’s commitment to preserving the country’s financial stability and ensuring sustainable public finances. She noted that the budget laws are yet to be approved by the National Assembly and that the question of extending the law has not been addressed in either the Constitution or the Public Finance Act.
The proposed law aims to ensure clarity and predictability regarding revenue collection, expenditure, and transfers until the 2025 budget laws are enacted. It provides a legal framework to facilitate seamless functioning of the state and municipalities while safeguarding the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, ensuring legal certainty in the payment of salaries, pensions, social aid, and other social payments, and the use of tax privileges and exemptions. Moreover, the law ensures the application of special acts governing specific public relations until the 2025 budget laws are adopted.
The bill also specifies the order and manner of expenditure, prioritizing spending if expenditure exceeds revenue, and applies the principle of proportionality. It determines the order for making payments under the municipal, NHIF, and SSSB budgets.
For 2025, the law proposes the collection of targeted contributions from electricity producers into the ‘Electricity System Security’ fund. These funds will be used to finance programs aimed at compensating residential electricity consumers.
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