Bulgarian National Assembly held a regular sitting on Wednesday and passed at second reading the 2016 State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act.

On Tuesday, at an extraordinary sitting, which continued until around 10 p.m., the Bulgarian lawmakers voted at second reading on the final amendments to the draft bills on the 2016 National Health Insurance Fund Budget Act and the 2016 Public Social Insurance Budget Act.

The MPs also passed a portion of the 2016 State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act.

The parliament passed the 2016 budget of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) on Wednesday.

The regulatory body will avail of BGN 11,405,000, while its expenditures will amount to BGN 4,919,000, including expenditures on staff amounting to BGN 3,631,000 and capital expenditures of BGN 285,000.

The MPs rejected the proposal of Valeri Simeonov, Chairperson of the Patriotic Front parliamentary group, and other lawmakers for the annual state per-vote subsidy under the Political Parties Act to be changed to BGN 6.
The proposal was not backed by the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee.

21 MPs voted in its favour, 26 voted against it, while 50 abstained.After rejecting the proposal, the MPs voted on the tabled proposal.79 legislators backed it, 13 voted against it, while 3 abstained.Thus the annual state per-vote subsidy under the Political Parties Act remains BGN 11.The public debt cap at the end of 2016 cannot exceed BGN 26.6 billion, the MPs decided.The cap of the new public debt that can be issued under the Government Debt Act is BGN 5.3 billion.The MPs voted down a proposal of Yanaki Stoilov, member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Leftist Bulgaria parliamentary group, who proposed the public debt does not exceed BGN 23.5 billion at the end of 2016.

The parliament voted at second reading on the text of Article 32 of the 2016 State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act, which had been approved by the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee, and adopted the 2016 budget of the Intelligence State Agency.

Some 87 legislators backed the text, 16 voted against it, and 12 abstained.

The expenditures of the Intelligence State Agency will amount to BGN 20,700,000 and the budget transfers will be estimated at BGN 20,700,000.

The MPs decided the threshold for receiving family allowances for bringing up children will increase from BGN 350 to BGN 400 as of July 1, 2016.

According to the adopted texts, the average monthly income of a family under the Family Allowances Act will be BGN 350 as of January 1, 2016 and BGN 400 as of July 1, 2016.

A family with 1 child will receive an allowance of BGN 37 per month in 2015, a family with 2 children – BGN 85, a family with 3 children – BGN 130, a family with 4 children – BGN 140. The allowance of a family will be BGN 20 higher for each child after the fourth one.

The monthly allowance for bringing up twins will be BGN 75.

The monthly allowance for bringing up a child with permanent disabilities will amount to BGN 100.

The one-off financial aid received upon the birth of a child will be BGN 250 for the first child of a family, BGN 600 for a second child, BGN 300 for a third child, and BGN 200 for a fourth child.