27.03.2014

"Last week the Ministry of Finance has transferred BGN 20 million advance payment to municipalities under the Public Investment Programme "Growth and Sustainable Development of the Regions", Minister of Finance Petar Chobanov announced at a press conference after the meeting with local businesses in Pazardzhik that was organized to acquaint local companies with the new possibilities for financing from the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) and with the instruments provided thereby for flexible and low interest loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. Minister Chobanov commented that the expectations were to create employment for around 20,000 people in the municipalities with projects financed by the Public Investment Programme.

The first project completed with PIP funds, the sports hall Arena-Botevgrad in the town of Botevgrad, will be opened on Saturday, Chobanov announced. He specified that projects to be completed were financed under PIP so as to be opened quickly and used by the people. I hope that all funds under PIP will be absorbed, the Minister said, and reminded that the progress of municipalities in the absorption was to be reviewed. The funds of projects that have not been started will be reallocated to new ones so as the money to be disbursed by the end of the year.

"With the Programme we have covered all regions of the country and supported municipalities that have been sustainably neglected and no additional capital resources have been allocated to them, while we have seen that the investment needs are indeed very big",. Municipal projects financed under PIP are almost 400 and located all over the country. The Finance Minister once again expressed his position that investments in local infrastructure were very important and part of the economic development because they created conditions for generating local employment and would ensure a better living environment. During the next years of the Government's term of office we have envisaged similar resources in order launched projects to be completed and to start new ones, stated the Finance Minister.

With regard to the keen interest of journalists concerning the pending new foreign loan Minister Chobanov again commented that that was no news - the 2014 Budget Law provides for a limit on the government loan and also what it would be spent for. Chobanov specified that the MoF is to issue debt on the international market because "we do not want to take resources from the Bulgarian banking system because there will not be money left for extending loans". He stressed that the idea was our banking system to credit the Bulgarian businesses and not the State to use the funds available therefor; that was the reason to tap the international markets.

The improvement of the relations between the revenue administration and the businesses and the positive effects of the changes made in the functioning of the single account are among the main topics discussed between the Minister and the companies in Pazardzhik. "The business has asked the Government for predictable environment for development, not to repeat the problems from the past and to have understanding and good listening", Minister Chobanov added. The development of the e-government was among the topics discussed. "We are moving towards using what is available at the moment. The aim is to provide more e-services in the public domain and to increase the number of e-services offered by the revenue administrations and to make them more accessible and effective for citizens and businesses is among our priorities", Chobanov said.

Before the local companies the Minister of Finance summarised the measures taken by the Government to improve the business environment in the country - timely VAT refund in order of the requests filed, an opportunity for companies to reschedule tax arrears, lowering the administrative burden and that when conducting inspections the NRA no longer required information and documents that it already had available.