Sat, Feb 11 2012

Bulgaria’s budget 2010 locked in tough calculations

Mon, Oct 12 2009 09:53 CET

byDnevnik.bg

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Bulgaria’s budget 2010 locked in tough calculations

Simeon Dyankov, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, and Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.

Photo: Krassimir Yuskeseliev

Hard liquor excises will be kept intact in 2010 and city councils will each decide on lifting local taxes, Bulgarian ministers told a special news conference on October 11 2009.

The Cabinet of Boiko Borissov, the leader of the right-of-centre political party GERB, which swept into power after the July 5 2009 elections, mapped out no measures to tame the ballooning deficits. But deputy prime minister and finance minister Simeon Dyankov reiterated his target for a balanced budget for 2009.

Unofficial sources say the Government will seek to tap into revenue reserves to try and assuage the yawning budgetary shortfalls. The state will not cover unreasonable municipal debts but local governments will be allowed to put up taxes within the statutory cap the government proposes to be increased.

The Cabinet also proposes that hospitals providing bad health care coupled with mounting debt fuelled by sham patients to be left to go to the wall as they have the status of commercial entities. This will pave the way for the health care system reform, which involves closure of hospitals and reassessment of the value of clinical paths.

Neither the prime minister nor finance minister would elaborate on Budget 2010, focusing instead on a new stream of details about what they have inherited from their predecessors. Borissov urged ministers from the Stanishev Cabinet to defend their spending, inviting them to a parliamentary debate on October 16.

Health care institutions have accumulated debts to the tune of 50 million leva in delayed payments and 280 million leva in current liabilities.

The National Road Infrastructure Agency (NAPI) has built up 132 million leva in unpaid debts to private companies under contracts signed between the general elections. It is short of 25 million leva for road maintenance during the winter, Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev said.

(Dnevnik)

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