BAS: Bulgarians’ material status not improved by the country’s financial stability

“The 2013 Budget, like the two previous ones, is based on ‘fanatical’ observation of financial stability and, hence, the fulfilment of Maastricht criteria for Eurozone membership. This, however, has not improved the material status of Bulgarians,” Professor Garabed Minassian, an economist from the Institute of Economics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), told journalists when commenting on the State budget for next year. According to him, Bulgaria has not become a better place to live in during the last three years, although the deficit in our country was 2% last year and 4.1% in the Eurozone.

Professor Minassian pointed out that the Government had repeatedly declared that, at a time of crisis, taxes do not change but has recently imposed a new 10% tax on bank deposits interest. According to BAS, there are several important ‘uncertainties and objections’ regarding the new tax, which cast doubt on the need for its introduction. Among them is the need of the budget to receive these tax revenues. As for the motive that this will tax the rich, this could be done by reintroducing progressive income taxation instead of levying a uniform tax on all deposits.

Regarding the budget fulfilment for this year, economist Victor Yotsev pointed out that there are conditions for pre-election spending of State funds at the end of 2012. He calculated that, considering the BGN 600 mln budget surplus as of September and the projected 1.3% budget deficit, the Government can spend about BGN 1.5 bn.

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