Bulgaria Socialist Leader Boycotts Budget Vote

The leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and former Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev has admitted to skipping the parliamentary session, which adopted at first reading the budget bill for next year without much debate.

"It is the obligation of the majority to defend what they propose. This is the first time that the rulers dare skip this," said Stanishev, whose party was forced out of office after the center-right GERB party swept the July elections.

"I expected to hear opinions and see whether there is a point in debating. Apparently any debate or dialogue with this majority is impossible," he added.

According to Stanishev the budget bill for next year is totally meaningless since the government has vowed to review it once again in the middle of 2010, when the economic parameters of the country and the spending side of the budget will be clear.

"Judging by the statements of the prime minister, budget 2009 will remain in use next year. He says everyone can spend as much as they want by the summer and then they will think what to do," Stanishev fumed.

The government has set a fiscal deficit at BGN 465,7 M or 0,7% of GDP next year but will target a zero gap in a bid to speed up euro zone entry.

The budget draft put spending at BGN 26,86 B and revenues at BGN 26,4 B, which are expected to include BGN 20,9 B in tax revenue and BGN 3,4 B in non-tax revenue.

Aid, the main share of which will come from the EU budget, is planned at BGN 2 M.

The government expects the economy to shrink by 2% next year after contracting by 6,3% in 2009.

Foreign investments, which collapsed this year from BGN 6,5 B to BGN 3 B, have been penciled in at BGN 3,3 B.

Excise duties on cigarettes will be raised 43% next year in a bid to curb smoking, relieve the health care system and redirect more money to it.

The tax policy remains unchanged. The social security burden will be cut by 2 percentage points to help businesses and protect jobs.

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