Kuzman Iliev on private pension funds: There are 25 billion there, how can we not take them, how can we not nationalize them

"Until the fiscal reserve is exhausted, there is seemingly no drama. The drama is long-term because we actually make very serious expenses that we do not know how to finance, i.e. we spend money that we have not earned and at one point we say to ourselves – how are we going to pay for this. At one point we all realize that we do not know how and where to get the money and very dangerous moves begin – phantasmagoric, unrealistic, wishful".

This was commented to the Bulgarian National Radio by economic analyst Kuzman Iliev, who is the chairman of the "Bulgaria Can" party, regarding the still unadopted state budget for 2025.

According to him, several very serious problems are facing the budget in terms of revenues:

"One of them is that because of the energy crisis that the whole of Europe is entering, at some point small and medium-sized businesses, industry, unions will take to the streets and say – – "We are paying extremely high electricity prices". Energy companies are bankrupt - there is no money in them. This will also weigh on the budget. We will return money under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan. There will be no money that is included in the budget. That is, on the revenue side there are many question marks".

Kuzman Iliev on pensions and politicians:

And on the expenditure side there is a lot of populism, Iliev also added. According to him, the acting finance minister abdicated from responsibility:

"The moment you sit in this chair, it doesn't matter whether you are an acting minister, whether you are currently telling yourself that your horizon is 1-2 months and you will pass the hot potato to parliament. You should know that you are becoming the face of irresponsibility, the face of the enslavement of the middle class".

Proposals are being submitted on a fire, the economic analyst pointed out and gave an example with real estate. According to him, real estate will increase by twenty percent in view of the VAT, which will have to be paid when selling a property. According to him, currently in the "legislative fog" things are going through that will "hit" normal people in Bulgaria who work.

"The treasury has no money and it is easiest to take from those who do something in the economy", he summarized.

According to him, this is not the first time a law on the budget has been introduced that is illegal. According to him, various laws have been adopted in Bulgaria many times without an impact assessment.

"The budget for the year was made based on political considerations without responsibility for whether it will not lead to a situation in which Bulgaria is in a liquidity crisis in the middle of the year, even earlier - in April and May. Bulgaria will not have money to meet its needs," pointed out Kuzman Iliev in the event that the proposed budget option is adopted. He believes that if there is political will to adopt a budget, it will be even more generous than the proposals:

"There is no political formation in Bulgaria that can control its urge to spend Bulgarians' money – with someone else's pie to make a memorial. The easiest thing is to spend some money that the middle class will have to pay back".

According to him, the deficit is financed in 70% of banks. In the long term, we are making the bankers' necks thicker, the analyst explained.

According to him, the other "bomb" that is coming is in the pension system. Iliev noted the hole in the National Social Security Institute and predicted:

"When there is not enough money there, there will be something that is very close to the politicians' reflex – They look at private pension funds and say to themselves "There are 25 billion there, how can we not take them, how can we not nationalize them. That is coming. Postponing the problems does not solve them".

We must do the right things for ourselves, not for the eurozone, Kuzman Iliev is categorical, adding that the eurozone is not a panacea, and there are serious problems in it. In his words, all these gloomy forecasts can be avoided if we think and act correctly.