Bulgarian press review, November 26, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, November 26 (BTA)

THE HOME SCENE

"Sega" leads with the replacement of Emilia Maslarova MP of the Socialists' Coalition for Bulgaria from the position of leader of the parliamentary labour and social committee. The unprecedented decision was based on ethical considerations and was made at an extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary committee.

Maslarova recently waived her immunity as an MP so as not to obstruct an investigation into the award of a detrimental contract for an overpriced refurbishment of a social services centre in the southern town of Stara Zagora.

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"Troud" ("GERB Splits Over Loan-from-a-Friend Provision") writes that for a second time in the past week MPs of GERB reject a legislative proposal by the government of Boyko Borissov. Parliament Wednesday turned down a government-sponsored bill that was meant to bring to light loans between friends. During the vote, GERB split into 41 voting "for" and 40 abstaining. The tax authorities were lobbying hard to introduce such a provision in the law, in a bid to end the practice of people using the loan-from-a-friend excuse for suspicious income.

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"Standard News" ("Military Cut Off from [Cheap] Apartments") leads with the news that military people will no longer be able to purchase housing from the Defence Ministry housing stock which they have been using. Defence Minister Nickolay Mladenov is quoted as saying that the measure was called for by the depleted housing stock.

Now the military had an option to purchase an apartment at preferential prices after living in it for 15 years.

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"Troud" carries an interview with former Education Minister Daniel Vulchev ("A Chance to Blow up the Socialist-Balkan Comfort"). Vulchev says that for the second time in the past 20 years Bulgaria is in a situation where the status quo is a mess and it doesn't know what to do. "I call 'status quo' this socialist-Balkan soil which is generously enriched with the manure of the police/olygarchs and where normal plants can hardly survive," he says. He goes on to say that this status quo was first shaken in 2001 when Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha came to win the general elections, and now is the second time, when the elections were won by Boyko Borissov. "It is a unique situation in terms of opportunity for reforms. Now it is all a question of competence and will."

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"Sega" carries a comment on the upcoming congress of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). "Long years MRF representatives were saying that the party was not based on ethnicity because many in its ranks, including the leadership, were ethnic Bulgarians. A week before the party's new congress, it is clear that this Bulgarization [...] has been poorly done and short-lived. The truth is that the ethnic Bulgarians in MRF - or at least most of them - did not join this party out of love for the Liberal values or even less out of fondness for the Bulgarian ethnic model. While the Movement was on power, the financial portions were generous. The question now is whether [MRF leader Ahmed] Dogan has something to keep the Bulgarians in MRF or they are free to go now that the party is no longer among the power-holders."
ECONOMY

"Borissov's Visit to Parliament Turns Tax Laws Upside Down" is a headline in "Sega" which writes that important revisions in tax laws and the position of the majority on these took dramatic turns on Wednesday. Under what seems to be the Prime Minister's last word, the tax on gambling will be hiked to 15 per cent from the effective 10 per cent and will remain unchanged for rakia (the traditional Bulgarian stiff drink), and young married couples will continue to get a tax relief if they pay a mortgage for an only home, the paper says. These were agreed upon by the Prime Minister, the Blue Coalition, Ataka and Order, Lawfulness, Justice at a half-hour meeting in Parliament.

"Cheers to the Government" headlines a comment in "Standard News" saying that the Prime Minister was faced with the classical choice: to charge or not to charge the millions of drinking people in Bulgaria and risk undermining his own image as a man of the people. "The chaos in Parliament and the change of decisions every other hour leavs an impression that the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing. The decisions of the majority are unpredictable and often guided by an elusive emotion. The only way to have some clarity is for the Prime Minister to appear and show the way out. To preclude any shocks during the second-reading debates of the national budget [for next year], it is best for Boyko Borissov to move in Parliament for a couple of days and personally moderate the budget's adoption."

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"Sega" ("State Starts Paying up to Businesses in December") reports that millions of leva due under contracts with private companies and forgotten by the ministries will start to be paid up from December. The government has set itself the task to be done with this by the end of February and is ready to send letters to banks urging them to be more relenting to businesses which have troubles repaying their loans, Prime Minister Borissov said after the government's weekly meeting Wednesday. He denied suggestions that the government is delaying payments to businesses for the sole purpose of ending the year with a balanced budget.

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In a "24 Chassa" interview, Centre for Economic Development President Georgi Prohaski says the important thing is to hold out in the coming half-year. Continued stability of the financial system and a budget without a sizeable deficit and without serious external financial support will be seen as indications of stability and a lower risk, which will bring back the capital flows, says Prohaski. This is why the coming six months is so important and companies should use this time to restructure and rethink their business.

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"Klassa" reports that the receipts from excise duty on cigarettes have contracted by 316 million leva. It quotes Customs Agency chief Vanyo Tanov as saying that the increased excise duty in early 2009 has not resulted in higher revenue. The painful conclusion comes on the backdrop of an upcoming further increase of cigarettes from the beginning of 2010, says the story.

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"Sega" writes that patients, the State, the Health Insurance Fund and hospitals will most probably be paying higher prices for medicines which are fully or partially reimbursable. This increase will result from revisions in an ordinance on the registration of medicine prices.

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"Monitor" reports of an upcoming increase of the rates for legal services due to a decision to charge 20 per cent VAT for such services which Parliament adopted on Wednesday. Previously, legal services were exempt from VAT but the European Commission warned Bulgaria that the VAT directive was bring violated. .

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"Agriculture Minister Crossed Out 1.5 Mln. Virtual Cows" headlines a front-page story in "Novinar". The said non-existent cows were dropped from the information system of the National Veterinary Service. Farmers get their national co-payments per head of registered livestock and they are known to have sometimes overreported the number of animals they keep in order to get more money, says the story.

BULGARIA - EU

In a "Sega" interview, MEP Nadezhda Neinski (European People's Party) says that Europe "is following closely the marriage of convenience between GERB and Ataka". "Ataka is not a party which gets Europe's sympathy for the simple reason that nationalistic parties, especially in the Balkans are not viewed favourably. Such formations in the EP didn't participate in the talks for the election of President and Foreign Minister of the EU. To put it bluntly, nobody considers them seriously and relies on their support. It is mindboggling how the GERB government relies on unconditional support from Ataka and remains cautious in respect of support from the Blue Coalition which includes two EPP-affiliated parties. [...] At this stage public confidence secures Brussels' support for the government," Neinski says.

Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:

· http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
· http://www.novinite.com/index.php
· http://www.focus-fen.net/

Most discussed topics of the day – November 26, 2009

· MPs failed to adopt the increase of excise duty on spirits and beer while voting the amendments to the Excise Duty and Tax Warehouses Act. The proposal was excise of the ethyl alcohol to be increased from BGN 1100 to BGN 1250 per 1 hectoliter pure alcohol, and the excise duty on the ethyl alcohol (home-made brandy) produced in small distillatory to increase from BGN 550 to BGN 625 per 1 hectoliter pure alcohol.
MPs increased excise of cigarettes on Thursday. The specific excise is increased from BGN 41 to BGN 101 per 1000 pieces and the proportional excise is raised from 23 to 40.50%. Amendments to the Excise Duty and Tax Warehouses Act provide specific excise duty not to be less than BGN 148 per 1000.
Bulgarian parliament passed 15% increase of excise duty on gambling on second reading amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act. The proposal was passed unanimously with 149 votes.