Limiting the debt and more money for social policies will be the main demands for the new budget from "Continuing the Change".
The party's co-chairman, Assen Vassilev, pointed out that the changes are aimed at preventing opportunities for corrupt practices and non-transparent spending of public resources, towards support for young families, measures for business and improving the quality of healthcare.
The proposals are related to limiting the state debt - reducing the limit for assuming state debt by 7 billion leva; transparent spending of capital funds - abolishing Art. 111, which allows funds for capital expenditures not spent by September 30 to be transferred to current repairs and to be spent non-transparently for construction companies approved by decrees of the Council of Ministers; listing specific activities that will be financed from the central budget; introducing public procurement for private hospitals when they use public resources in order to reduce the National Health Insurance Fund's expenditure on medicines. This is a European directive, we have a penalty procedure under this directive, we proposed it three times while I was the Minister of Finance, and three times my colleagues from GERB, DPS and "Vazrazhdane" voted "against". The calculations are that if this measure for public procurement is introduced, the NHIF will save about 120 million leva, noted Vassilev.
The proposals aimed at supporting young families are related to an increase in the tax credit for children - from 600 to 900 leva for the first child, from 1200 to 1800 leva for the second child, from 1800 to 2700 leva for the third and more children, from 1200 to 1800 leva. for children with disabilities, as well as 100% maternity pay for the first two years, even when returning to work. This measure is self-financing, explained the co-chair of "We Continue the Change".
A three-year program is also planned for the construction of new kindergartens and nurseries - 150 million leva. for kindergartens in Sofia and 300 million leva for nurseries in Sofia, as well as expanding the scope of students who receive one-time assistance, including for 5th, 6th and 7th grades, announced the co-chair of "We Continue the Change" Kiril Petkov.
The biggest problem in Sofia, which was inherited, is the lack of places in kindergartens and nurseries. It cannot be solved with the local government budget alone, Petkov added.
Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev announced that there is currently a shortage of about 10,000 places in kindergartens and nurseries in the capital. For us, this is one of the most priority topics and we are ambitious to solve the problem by the end of the mandate, the mayor assured.
At the press conference, it became clear that the proposals proposed by "Continuing the Change" measures for business include maintaining the VAT registration threshold at 166,000 leva, relief for sick leave, increasing food vouchers, increasing daily unemployment benefits by the percentage of the increase in the maximum social security income.
It is also proposed to strengthen prevention and prophylaxis in healthcare - free medicines and medicines with reduced co-payments, free prescription medicines for children up to 7 years of age, additional funds for medical devices for diabetes, an increase of 20 million leva in the budget for general practitioners for prophylaxis, as well as an increase of 22 million leva in the funds for remuneration of medical specialists in regional and municipal hospitals.
All these measures may seem expensive, but a large part of the measures are self-financing. If self-financing measures are removed, the total amount is 255 million leva. We propose to make a correct calculation of salaries in the Ministry of Interior. Using the correct amount, this means that salaries in the Ministry of Interior will increase by 20%, not 50%. This will cost the budget a little over 600 million leva. There are 345 million leva left, with which the deficit can be reduced. We propose to reorganize mainly the expenditure part of the budget, so that we have 7 billion leva less debt and 345 million leva less deficit, said the co-chair of "We continue the change" Asen Vassilev.