Sofia, July 26 (BTA) - At an extraordinary meeting Monday, the
National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) reached an
agreement on an update proposed by the caretaker government of
the 2021 state budget, the public social insurance budget, and
the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

According to the proposed update, budget revenues are expected
to exceed by 2 billion leva the projected figure, while spending
 is to be increased by 1.8 billion leva.

Labour and Social Policy Minister Galab Donev told a briefing
after the meeting that the NCTC supports in principle the three
budgets, with minor remarks regarding the NHIF's budget, which
are to be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the Fund's
Supervisory Board later on Monday.

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said the idea of the update is
to ensure that the new government can cope with a new COVID wave
 without resorting to hard emergency measures.

The update needs to be moved for approval by Parliament by a
regular government, which is yet to be formed after the July 11
early general elections.

Donev said that the caretaker government's suggestions
concerning the three budgets are intended to ensure that the
State will continue to function normally within the additional
revenues, without exceeding the target deficit, which is
actually reduced by 0.5 per cent. He said that the additional
revenue comes from better collection of taxes, excise duties and
 health and social security contributions.

Donev said that spending will be increased in almost all areas,
including healthcare. An increase in pensions is proposed as
well, by increasing the weight of the contributory length of
service in the pension formula, from 1.2 to 1.35. Two million
leva more will be provided to other social payments, including
monthly support to pensioners with incomes below the poverty
line, and support to parents of children aged under 14 if the
adults need to stay home and look after their kids in a new
COVID wave. Some 82 million leva are earmarked under the
Personal Care Act, to cope with the increased number of service
users.

With the budget update, the minimum pension will become 340
leva, and the pension cap will increase to 1,500 leva, from the
current 1,440 leva.

Vassilev said that the budget update was conceived with the
assumption of a serious COVID crisis, similar to those of
November and December 2020. He said that the growth and
inflation figures in the update are based on such a scenario, as
 are the necessary payments to business and the healthcare
system. "The payments are conditional, if such a crisis is
averted, the payments will be much lower. But if the crisis
happens, the money is there," Vassilev said.

Radosvet Radev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial
Association, said that "the hero today is the Bulgarian business
 which generated the greater-than-expected budget revenue during
 these hard times".

Plamen Dimitrov, President of the Confederation of Independent
Trade Unions in Bulgaria, said that the trade union supports the
 budget update, noting that spending has been increased to cover
 the necessary areas, including support to business, employment
and healthcare, without cutting other expenditures.

* * *

Meanwhile, the NHIF said that it has paid a total of 458,039,300
 leva in out-of-hospital care in January-June. The money was
paid out for primary out-of-hospital medical care, specialized
out-of-hospital medic care, diagnostic work, dental care, and
payments for work during the epidemic emergencies. RI/ZH