Cabinet allocates BGN 280 mln for covering the deficit of the National Social Security Institute

The state subsidies to Bulgarian farmers for fuel excise taxes will depend on the revenue infused into the State Treasury for the next year, stated for Klassa daily Finance Minister Simeon Djankov after the GERB(Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) Cabinet's meeting yesterday. As previously announced, the Government promised to allocate to the farmers a total of BGN 70 mln for covering some percentage of the fuel excise duty, but now the exact sum would depend on the accumulated fiscal revenues.

Yesterday it became clear that the European Commission had approved the sixth amendment to the Rural Development Programme (RDP). It will enable the granting of financial aid to farmers cultivating lands covering an area of over 100 hectares. Thus, in practice, the maximum subsidy for disadvantaged agricultural areas is repealed. According to the press office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF), the amount of financial aid to eligible area per farmer will increase to €130 per ha.

"I ordered the National Revenue Agency to audit the actual expenditure scheme of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church over the past 10 years when it spent the state subsidies granted to it," stated the Top financier. The audit was appointed over the alarming signals submitted to the Confederation of Labour (CL) "Podkrepa" on the fraud spending scheme. In 2008, the Church received a budgetary grant of BGN 1.8 mln, while in 2009 it was state-subsidised with BGN 1.9 mln, whereas in 2010 due to the crisis, it was granted only BGN 1.5 mln. Besides, according to the data of CL "Podkrepa", the socially insured priests numbered 365 people in the Sofia Eparchy, while in the Eparchies of Varna, Plovdiv, Vidin, Vratsa and Veliko Tarnovo their number was ten times less, while the Pleven Eparchy had only one socially secured priest. "It is not true that the Holy Synod has doubled the salaries of the priests. This is impossible to happen in times of crisis, but it is clear that indecent immoral campaign is waged against the Bulgarian Orthox church or against one or another senior clergyman," reckoned in response the Metropolitan Bishop Kiril of the Eparchies of Varna and Veliki Preslav.

''The introduction of the new salary system to the public administration will be probably delayed by about two months,'' said also Djankov.

Meanwhile, the GERB government allowed an additional transfer of BGN 280 mln to the Public Social Insurance Budget to cover the deficit generated by the lower revenues resulting from the social insurance contributions. The funds will be provided at the expense of savings and restructuring of approved expenditures of the Central Budget for 2011.

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