04.06.2014

"Fiscal stability is very difficult to achieve. We have exerted a lot of effort in the past year to bring the public finances in their normal state and such talks about bankruptcy obviously have a political aim. We should not mix the expert with the political. The State definitely is not moving towards bankruptcy; now we are even more stable", Minister of Finance Petar Chobanov said in an interview for the "Good Morning, Bulgaria!" programme of TV7. According to him talking about bankruptcy may have the effect of a break for the economy and it is not a statesmanlike approach to continue with it.

Minister Chobanov emphasised that as of end-February last year the fiscal reserve was BGN 3.9 billion, while as of end-April this year it was BGN 6 billion. "The debt issued by the previous cabinet at the end of its administration was very badly met by the market and created a lot of tension", the Minister further said. He added that for the period February to March of last year inclusive the debt increased by almost BGN 1.5 billion, while for the last six months of 2013 it increased by just BGN 550 million, which was three times less than the debt at the end of the term of office of GERB. For the first five months of this year the debt has grown by BGN 800 million -these are two issues that will be repaid within the framework of the year, i.e. definitely there is no such increase of the debt that is being discussed. "The BGN 10 billion that are being repeated, this is an arbitrary use of big figures", the Minister was adamant.

"In respect of the debt this year we are not doing anything extraordinary that has not been planned in advance", is the view of the Finance Minister. He reminded that the amount of the debt to be issued and where it was going to be issued was broadly discussed at the time of this year budget adoption. "We continue to fulfil this plan and do not allow situations like the one in February last year when extraordinarily BGN 800 million had to be found in order to pay the agricultural producers", he noted.

According to the Minister of Finance the result of the improved work of the revenue agencies is that last year they have collected more revenues compared to 2012. "The Customs Agency has better results in combating the contraband, but of course there is always room for improvement", he added. Petar Chobanov explained that when risk for revenue implementation arose the revenue agencies always reacted with additional measures that helped to address any eventual underperformance. He further said that additional BGN 25 million were expected thanks to expanding the activity of the fiscal control unit. The Minister was explicit that as of the moment there were no grounds to consider that there would be changes in the management of the revenue administrations.

In reply to the question whether it would be possible to allocate additional funds to tackle the problems in the emergency medical care the Finance Minister replied that it depended on the Government - the Finance Minister is not personally making the decision how much and to whom is to be allocated. In respect of the possibility civil servants to pay their own health insurance contributions Minister Chobanov clarified that the topic would be included in the discussions on the 2015 budget.