Bulgarian press review, December 4, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, December 4 (BTA)

HOME SCENE

"Troud" reports that GERB wants the Interior Ministry to have full uninterrupted access to data from mobile operators and internet traffic. The Council of Ministers introduced in Parliament on Thursday new amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, which turned out to be more drastic than those proposed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) while it was in office. The amendments proposed now expand the range of offences for which private correspondence can be scrutinized. While now these are offences which carry more than five years' imprisonment, the latest proposal includes offences punishable by more than two years' imprisonment.

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"Troud" says Yane Yanev, leader of the Order, Lawfulness, Justice (OLJ) party, was ordered out of the parliamentary sitting after reading a statement against President Georgi Purvanov and GERB's refusal to cut one million leva from his budget. OLJ suspects GERB of collusion with Purvanov. Yanev stated that "Purvanov lacks the moral characteristics" required for his high seat. Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva said this was unacceptable conduct and sent Yanev out of the plenary hall.

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"Troud" has interviewed Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev, who says hospital accreditation will be scrapped as a condition for signing an agreement with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). Accreditation will be done on demand by the hospitals. However, to sign an agreement with NHIF, a hospital must meet medical standards, offer specialist care round the clock and proper equipment. Nanev says the aim is to have hospitals which can really provide treatment. And because people will need to get to them, the Ministry is prioritizing the emergency medical service in terms of staff and equipment.

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"Troud" writes that drunk drivers will be fined on the basis of two eyewitness accounts alone if a Traffic Police proposal is adopted in the new Road Traffic Act next year. All key junctions in Sofia will be supplied with CCTV cameras from January. So far this year 156,000 traffic violations have been caught on camera.

In "24 Chassa" Alexi Kessyakov, Secretary of the State and Public Commission on Traffic Safety, says about 60 people are killed by drunk drivers every year. The Traffic Police registers more than 30,000 drunk drivers a year. The problem with the permitted amount of beer or alcohol before driving is very serious because its effect varies from one person to another, and stress and depression must also be factored in.

THE ECONOMY

Parliament adopted the 2010 National Budget Act after a 17-hour debate in the small hours on Friday, the national dailies report. GERB, the Blue Coalition and Ataka voted in favour, OLJ walked out early, and the BSP and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms voted against.

"Sega" comments that amid the battles over higher taxes and excise duties on alcohol, cigarettes and gambling, the rise in the excise duties on energy, coal and heavy liquid fuels went unnoticed. Also, the income threshold for self-insured persons was raised from 260 leva to 420 leva a month. So the government, like Robin Hood, dipped deep into the pocket of gambling businesses, but did not spare other taxpayers either.

"Standart News" says the debate on the budget of the NHIF was underwhelming after the 17-hour debate on the national budget. The NHIF sets expenditures at 1,689,432,000 leva and revenues at 2,519,211,000 leva. Health insurance contributions will amount to 1,560,340,000 leva.

The BSP will challenge before the Constitutional Court a Budget Act provision allowing the Council of Ministers to cut the appropriations of all departments and municipalities in 2010, "Sega" says. The Left walked out in protest for an hour during the voting of the budget bill. An important new provision stipulates that loans of more than 10,000 leva from friends and companies must be declared from next year. Also, 100 per cent of the proceeds from privatization shown in the executive budget must go to the Silver Fund for pensions. Currently it holds 1,600 million leva.

"Troud" asks if the 2010 budget has a false bottom. While experts agree that the new government is dealing with some bad legacy, Borissov's government is making things worse. It is no secret that for years now Bulgaria has had unrealistically low revenues set in its budgets, with artificial surpluses used to finance excess spending. Some experts suspect that this is the rationale behind the 2010 budget too. However, this year there is no surplus. It turns out that the Bulgarian budget tends to have a false bottom.

In "24 Chassa" Georgi Stoev from Industry Watch analyses what he calls "missed opportunities" in the 2010 budget, including pro-reformist solutions in response to the crisis and revenue cuts. Stoev says the finance minister seems to focus on pushing up revenues, not on streamlining the expenditures of individual departments. The areas which soak up the largest amounts of public money - health care and security - are getting about 3,800 million leva without any visible change in the manner this money is spent.

"Troud" says interest rates will "fall gradually because the financial system is conservative and jolts are undesirable". The newspaper quotes Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, emerging from a meeting with National Bank Governor Ivan Iskrov. Borissov said the central bank's Governing Board furnished evidence that financial stability in Bulgaria is guaranteed. "The banking system in Bulgaria has over 17 per cent capital adequacy, high liquidity, good indicators and enough buffers," Iskrov said.

In "Dnevnik" Krassimir Stefanov, Executive Director of the National Revenue Agency, says VAT fraud attempts are become more frequent during the ongoing crisis. Intercompany debt, the credit crunch and the companies' poorer liquidity account for the growing number of attempts to defraud the budget. The VAT-registered companies number nearly 200,000. Information exchange with the EU tax administrations shows that there is a gap of about 500 million leva between feedback from the system and the declared amounts. This leads to more frequent inspections, which triggers speculation that VAT input tax is being withheld, Stefanov explains.

"Sega" reports that the judiciary will hand out 24 million leva in bonuses. The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) did not hesitate and allowed administrative leaders to give incentives to judicial staff where economies were made. "The money was saved due to unfilled vacancies or sick leave," said SJC Budget Committee Chairman Ivan Kolev.

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 – December 4, 2009

· Bulgaria's Constitutional Court has overruled a decision that prohibits MPs who were collaborators of the State Security, the intelligence and secret police during the communist regime, to assume key posts in Parliament.
The proposal, tabled in parliament by the right-wing Blue coalition and supported by the majority of GERB party, was adopted at the end of July. It stated that MPs with state security records will not be able to head parliamentary commissions, join international delegations and be members of the interior security and defense commissions, as well as those that control the county's State Agency for National Security (DANS) and European funds.
The Constitutional Court was approached by the formerly ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party and its ally the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, now in opposition, who vehemently protested against the ban.

· The proposal for ousting Bulgaria's former Labour Minister Emilia Maslarova from the post of head of the parliamentary social committee has been delayed for next week. The decision came after more than an hour of heated debates and was taken as the members of parliament ran out of time for voting on legislative activities.
Emilia Maslarova has been stripped of her immunity so that prosecutors can investigate her for embezzling a total of BGN 10 M. Members of parliament from the right-wing Blue Coalition first tabled the proposal, citing the investigation that is underway against Maslarova for large-scale embezzlement. They have been backed by the MPs from the ruling majority of the center-right GERB party and its allies.