Sofia, April 18 (BTA) - "The National Recovery and Resilience
Plan is ready and the ruling majority can either accept it or
reject it," outgoing Prime Minister and GERB leader Boyko
Borissov told a news briefing at GERB's headquarters on Sunday.

Borissov underscored that the government is responsible and has
put much effort in the plan. "Two hundred people, who are among
the best experts, have worked on the draft," he said.

Borissov spoke after Friday's decision by Parliament to oblige
him to appear before the deputies on April 21 for a hearing on
the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, under which Bulgaria
is set to receive 12 billion leva in EU funding. A hearing of
Borissov was on Friday's agenda, but he did not appear in the
plenary hall. National Assembly Chair Iva Miteva read out a
letter from outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev
which stated that Borissov is on leave.

"I am suggesting to the new ruling majority to accept the plan,
it is well done. Reject it, if you don't like it. Draft your
plan, but stop speculations that there is no plan," added
Borissov.

Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev added that the
MPs can either propose an alternative plan or revise the current
 draft. He specified that MPs may oblige him to send the plan to
 the National Assembly and Parliament may task Donchev to send
the plan to the European Commission. An agreement has been made
with the European Commission to postpone sending the plan by one
 to two months in which a new plan can be drafted. However his
conviction is that there are no sensible proposals to revise the
 existing plan, neither capacity to draw a new plan.

Outgoing Prime Minister Borissov commented on criticism about
the disbanding of the national coronavirus task force. He
dismissed the idea that task force was disbanded in retaliation.
 He recalled that a large part of current MPs wanted the task
force to be disbanded. Also Borissov has ordered outgoing Health
 Minister Kostadin Angelov to reconvene the national coronavirus
 task force until a new task force is set up.

During the briefing outgoing Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev said
 that by March 31 the fiscal reserve was 7.9 billion leva and
will exceed 8 billion leva at the beginning of next week. "The
fiscal reserve is double the minimum amount set out in the law,"
 said Ananiev.
     
Since the start of the year, the government has paid out 1.345
billion leva in social and economic support, added Ananiev.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the government
has paid 5.1 billion leva for social and economic measures.

Ananiev admitted that the budget deficit in the first quarter of
 2021 was 644 million leva. However according to him, the first
quarter of 2021 cannot be compared with the first quarter of
2020 for objective reasons. The first reason is the
socio-economic measures, which have been implemented during the
pandemic. The other reason is the income and social assistance
policy. However, regardless of that the budget will be balanced
at the end of the month.
   
Under the State Budget Act the deficit is set at 4.9 billion
leva. Also under the State Budget Act the government can raise
up to 4.5 billion leva in new debt. So far the cabinet has
raised 800 million leva, said Ananiev. NV/PP