Ex Bulgarian FinMin: Financial Discipline of GERB Govt is Myth

Finance | March 20, 2013, Wednesday // 12:08|  views

In a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) Oresharski commented on the first actions of the country's recently appointed caretaker government. Photo by BGNES

Plamen Orehsarski, Finance Minister in Bulgaria's former three-way coalition government (2005-2009), has said that the caretaker government panel is too closely connected with the previous center-right GERB government to disclose anything important about its term in office.

In a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) Oresharski commented on the first actions of the country's recently appointed caretaker government.

"Numbers speak for themselves – while in 2009 Bulgaria had a fiscal reserve of BGN 8 B and a government debt of BGN 10 B, we now have a fiscal reserve of BGN 4 B and a public debt of BGN 14 B," he stated.

Oresharski argued that the figures dispelled the myth that the GERB government had been insistent on financial discipline to a fault.

He noted that the GERB cabinet had overspent over BGN 2 B per year during its four years in office.

Bulgaria's former Finance Minister further insisted that the money had gone to waste because the spending had failed to bring about lower unemployment rates and higher economic growth but had been used to finance current expenses.

Oresharski went on to speak about the election program of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

He insisted that it was crucial for Bulgaria to improve the business climate and encourage investment activity in the country so as to solve the unemployment problem.

Oresharski claimed that the 10% corporate tax was one of the few benefits of doing business in Bulgaria and argued that any attempt to change it would be highly inappropriate.

Stressing that the first duty of a government was to collect revenues, he drew attention to a key failure of the GERB cabinet, namely the loss of around 40% of receipts from excise duty on cigarettes only.

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Tags: Plamen Oresharski, GERB government, caretaker govenment, fiscal reserve, government debt, early elections, business climate, corporate tax, Three-Way Coalition cabinet

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