The Bulgarian government is planning to allocate BGN 50 M to pensioners in Easter bonuses.

This was announced by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on Saturday, daily Dnevnik reports.

The bonuses will be allocated from the revenues collected in the fight against contraband.

Borisov said that the revenues collected in the fight against contraband in January exceeded the amount generated in the same month last year with nearly BGN 1 B.

Thus the prime minister has ordered to Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov to grant pensioners with BGN 50 M in Easter bonuses.

Borisov estimated that since last year nearly BGN 200 M have been allocated to pensions outside the budget.

According to private bTV station, nearly 1 300 000 pensioners will be granted an Easter bonus of BGN 40.

It is expected that the poverty line will be the criteria which will determine whether pensioners will be eligible to receive the bonus.

At the beginning of this year, the poverty line was increased to BGN 300 and it is expected that pensioners whose pension is below this amount will be granted a bonus.