"There is a common understanding regarding the budget. All the proposals of Finance Minister Asen Vassilev on revenue measures will be accepted and Bulgaria will have a budget that will serve the Bulgarian citizens".

This was announced by the leaders of GERB and "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria": Boyko Borisov, Kiril Petkov and Hristo Ivanov, after an emergency leadership meeting this morning. The agreement was reached following on Tuesday, after an almost 11-hour meeting, the relevant committee in the National Assembly adopted the draft law on the state budget for 2023 in the second reading, rejecting key measures to strengthen tax control, which were recorded by the finance minister Asen Vassilev and which would guarantee part of the revenues in the budget.

The main reason for their rejection was the proposals of GERB, supported mainly by "There Is Such a People" and "Vazrazhdane". All this forced Vassilev to announce at the end of the meeting that he does not support the budget in its current form, and Toshko Yordanov from "There Is Such a People" offered him to resign.

This surprised the (non)coalition partners from "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria", since in mid-July GERB promised the finance minister that they would support the budget as "interim", but would propose additional expenses without violating the financial framework. However, this is not what happened in the departmental budget committee - a number of proposals to increase expenses were accepted, but those aimed at increasing revenues by increasing VAT collection were rejected.

The proposal to pay employees' salaries only by bank transfer was rejected, as this measure was aimed at companies with more than 50 employees, as well as the restaurant industry, as well as the idea that customers who do not receive a receipt in restaurants could refuse to pay the amount.

After the emergency meeting between the leaders this morning, however, the leader of "Yes, Bulgaria" (part of WCC-DB) Hristo Ivanov announced that an agreement had been reached to adopt the revenue measures with a small correction - electronic payment for companies will be mandatory for those with a staff of more than 100 people.

"The budget is the political law of a government. If a budget submitted by Finance Minister Asen Vassilev is not adopted, the government falls. Therefore, today we set ourselves the goal of discussing whether this is better for Bulgaria or to try to do again a compromise in the name of Bulgaria. I conceded on many things, but in order to reach the larger goal for the Eurozone and not to raise inflation further, we will support what Asen Vassilev is proposing," said GERB leader Boyko Borissov.

The co-chairman of "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" Kiril Petkov added that there is an agreement between the authorities that the ceiling for electricity prices and businesses will remain 200 leva. "This is an anti-inflationary measure that will remain, so we can be sure that we are within the frameworks, which are required by the evaluation mechanisms for the Eurozone," Petkov emphasized.

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