For the first time, we will welcome the New Year without a new bill for the state's money, but also without an extension of the current budget.
„In the first bills for 2025, the expenses were so large that we talked about a deficit of as much as 6 percent. Then the deficit shrank to the sacred 3 percent, at least on paper. For years, we have not even tried to balance the scales, and there is no question of a surplus at the end of the year. For the first time in 2025, we will be on a "manual management" budget. There have been years before that began without a budget adopted on time, but then extension laws were adopted,” said financial reporter Nova TV Nelly Todorova.
Finance experts do not have a unified opinion – According to some, many of the social payments cannot happen if there is no extension law. Among these payments are minimum pensions and others. According to others, such a cycle will not occur.
„To our questions to the Ministry of Finance - what will happen next year with revenues, expenses, salaries, pensions, etc. - we have not yet received an answer. The rule is that the state can spend in January as much as it spent last January - according to the 2024 budget. Last January, the increase in pensions had not come into effect, they were increased in July. What will happen to them, we are still looking for an answer”, said Todorova.
The holes in the budget are being filled with debts, the financial reporter explained. „If in 2023 we are talking about 42 billion leva, in 2028 "there will be a doubling of the debt we have. Against the backdrop of GDP, it is not huge. There is a rule that when loans are taken out, they should be for an investment that will then bring in revenue," Todorova explained. We take out loans to support the systems of the state - to pay salaries, etc. The question is to what extent the systems in question and whether each should receive an increase. In 10 years, the number of people working in the state administration has increased by 2%. At the same time, the population of Bulgaria is decreasing by 11%," Todorova summarized.
The largest increase in salaries is planned in the Ministry of Internal Affairs sector - it is from 40 to 56 percent. Here, the number of employees has been decreasing for 10 years, unlike the administration, but not by the same percentage, our financial reporter specified, adding that a significant increase in salaries is also planned in the “Defense” sector.
Without a budget and without an extension law, the state can last a maximum of 3 months. The Budget Committee will begin considering the tax laws and the 2025 budget on January 7th.