Long awaited budget sparks tensions
An increase of the salaries of police officers, the military, tax officers, intelligence officers and employees at several other branches of public administration were approved by the parliament's budget committee. The salary hikes are part of the budget for 2023 that has yet to be adopted by the National Assembly
These additional expenses total more than BGN 375.6 million, and they will be provided by cutting capital investment expenses. Such extra costs for the budget would most likely spur inflation.
In the meantime, WCC-DB's proposal for companies to declare cash balances was dropped, as well as the idea salaries of companies employing more than 50 people to be paid only via bank transfer. Nevertheless, in a joint public statement the ruling coalition leaders declared that all proposals will be adopted although some would be edited before that.
BNB governance decided
Two members of Parliament - Andrey Gyurov from WCC-DB, and Petar Chobanov from DPS, were elected deputy governors of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). Their nominations were supported by the ruling coalition and DPS. Vazrazhdane and TISP voted against.
Gyurov will take over the BNB's Issue Department which is responsible for the stability of the currency board system and the management of foreign currency reserves. Chobanov will run the Banking Department which performs the functions of a lender in the event of a systemic risk to the stability of the banking system. The mandates of both deputy governors will be six years.
The allocation of positions at the helm of the central bank stirred a lot of tensions within the coalition in the past months with none of the parties willing to take a step back.
DPS, GERB in favour of 'eternal mayors'
DPS will not accept the new proposal of WCC-DB to limit the number of mandates of mayors to two. According to Delyan Peevski, the DPS MP sanctioned for corruption under the global Magnitsky Act, DPS will not support the proposal, because there is no reason for "successful mayors to be limited to two terms of office".
"If people decided to support them 3-4-5 times, then they have done their job," said Peevski. Such a thesis was expressed earlier today by the leader of GERB, Boyko Borissov. Both parties support mayors across the country who have enjoyed the comfort of multiple terms in power.
Long awaited budget sparks tensions
An increase of the salaries of police officers, the military, tax officers, intelligence officers and employees at several other branches of public administration were approved by the parliament's budget committee. The salary hikes are part of the budget for 2023 that has yet to be adopted by the National Assembly
