We shall be working 4 months this year to fill up the state treasury, analysts from the Institute for Market Economics say. Every year they calculate how much Bulgarians have to pay for the services the state offers.

“This year Tax Freedom Day falls on 4 May. Taking that until then we will have worked to fill up the government coffers, afterwards we will be working only for our own selves, redistributing 36 percent revenues,” says Petar Ganev from the Institute for Market Economics.

“We are always somewhere around the 35, 36, 37 percent mark for redistribution, and adding European funding, the figure comes up to around 40 percent. But a discrepancy is observed between what goes into the budget and what happens at the end of the year.”

Economists talk of turning full circle from the adoption of the budget with a deficit, to a surplus at the end of the year. This is a practice that has to stop, says Petar Ganev:

“There is money in the budget. The question is how effectively we are spending it, as there will obviously be more money for the social systems. Around 500 million more for the health system, 500 million more for education. It is important whether this money is reaching more people.”