Bulgarian FinMin Mulls 2013 Wage Increase

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, says plans to increase minimum wages have nothing to do with the upcoming general elections in the summer of 2013. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, sees a strong possibility to increase wages and retirement pensions by 3% to 5% in April 2013.

Speaking in an interview for the Bulgarian 24 Chassa (24 Hours) daily, the Minister explained the increase will involve minimum monthly wages and retirement pensions.

"If we decrease expenses of Ministries, this could be added to the income of the most disadvantaged Bulgarians. For example, the military TV channel costs BGN 1 M," Djankov states.

He further stressed the move has nothing to do with the upcoming general elections in the summer of 2013.

After the summer break, the Minister plans to submit to the Parliament a draft Bill for senior State servants' income, which aims at eliminating disproportions between the salaries of ministers and experts. He promises that the new legislation will be effective no earlier than August 2013 in order to dissipate suspicions it is done for the benefit of senior officials from his now-ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB.

The idea behind the draft Bill is to give the PM and the ministers much higher salaries because currently the PM makes as much as the Chief Secretary of the Council of Ministries while the salary of the Finance Minister is average for the institution.

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