Bulgaria Railroad Company State Subsidies Remain Unchanged

In Tsvetkov's words, delays in paying the salaries to the BDZ workers is not normal, but the reason is there are no money for this. Photo by BGNES

The subsidies the Bulgarian government gives to the state owned railroad company BDZ will remain unchanged.

This has been announced Wednesday by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Alexander Tsvetkov, before entering the regular Council of Ministers session.

He will present later on Wednesday the official data about the current financial state of the company, about the debt accumulated over the years, and about the planed structural changes.

In his words, delays in paying the salaries to the BDZ workers is not normal, but the reason is there are no money for this.

BDZ Executive Director, Pencho Popov, announced Tuesday that the railway company planned to lay off about 13% of its employees by the first months of 2010.

Starting October 1, the BDZ has initiated a procedure to lay off 1 330 employees, and at least 700 more will be made redundant in January 2010. The layoffs are mostly in the administrative staff of the company.

Popov also said that the BDZ currently owed BGN 150 M, and that for the first nine months of 2009 it had accrued losses amounting to BGN 20 M. By the end of the year the losses are expected to reach BGN 40 M.

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