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Finance minister withdraws his support for 2023 budget

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev
Photo: BTA

After more than 11 hours of the budget committee meeting, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said that he no longer supported the 2023 budget. The reason is the sharply increased costs for salaries and other payments and the drastically cut measures to increase revenues. 

The amendments proposed by the parties were accepted at the second and final reading in the parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance. Whether they will stay depends on the parliament. 

The chairman of the budget committee, Yordan Tsonev from the MRF, said that he was not optimistic. 

MPs from all parties submitted 212 pages with 84 ideas for additions to the draft budget, which in total inflated the projected deficit from 3 to 30%. 

Proposals to return VAT to 20% for a number of sectors were rejected on the grounds that taxes could not be raised in the middle of the financial year.



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