„The news that the caretaker government will not submit a budget to the National Assembly is very worrying. What they have prepared, they do not want to submit. They say they will only introduce a law to extend the current budget so that Budget 2022 will be used for next year as well.“
This is what Asen Vassilev from „We Continue the Change „political party said at a briefing on the sidelines of the Parliament. In his words, the most responsible action now, without it being clear whether there will be a government or not, is the caretaker cabinet to submit the budget and the National Assembly to adopt it. According to him, the Bulgarian citizens and businesses cannot be left without a Budget. He pointed out:
„A budget can only be submitted by the Council of Ministers, not by MPs, so the only option to have a normal, real budget next year is for the caretaker cabinet to do its duty under the Constitution and submit a Budget Bill to be considered by this National Assembly.“
Today, during a hearing in the National Assembly, Finance Minister Rositsa Velkova informed that the caretaker government would propose a so-called extension law, which aimed to ensure the possibility of making payments until the adoption of the budget laws for 2023 with policies proposed by the regular cabinet.
From the rostrum, the Finance Minister emphasized that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has developed three versions of the draft budget for 2023. They take into account the fiscal trends, the risk of breaching the fiscal rules under the Public Finance Act, the expenditure commitments made from 2022, and the accumulated structural budget imbalances on the expenditure side. The options have been developed on the basis of the updated autumn macroeconomic forecast and on the basis of the expected budget execution for this year.
