Sofia, Sept 12 (BTA/GNA) – Bulgaria’s 2027 budget will focus on gradual fiscal consolidation, social and income policies, and improving the investment climate, Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee Chair and Progressive Bulgaria MP Konstantin Prodanov said in a television interview on Saturday.
Prodanov said efforts to curb the shadow economy would include introducing electronic invoicing and tighter controls on goods posing a high risk of tax evasion, such as fruit and vegetables crossing internal EU borders.
Plans also included increased tax relief for working parents, higher monthly child benefits and more funding for maternity benefits, he said.
Reviews of institutions’ functions were under way across all sectors to determine what reforms each system needed and how to implement them, Prodanov said. He cited administrative reform, noting that rules governing ministries’ organization were being amended to eliminate inefficiencies.
In healthcare, amendments to the Public Procurement Act would introduce two key changes, he said. Private hospitals receiving public funds from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) would have to hold tenders for medicines, while centralized tenders would be introduced for certain high-cost medicines. In education, the funding model would be reviewed to link allocations to actual educational outcomes rather than pupil numbers.
Asked about plans to revise property tax valuations, Prodanov said they had not been updated since 2007, depriving municipalities of locally raised revenue and encouraging the shadow economy.
The valuations would rise gradually, with the precise scale of the increases to be determined by Finance Ministry calculations, he said. He added that the revision would affect property tax valuations but not waste collection fees.
GNA/BTA