Bulgaria's President Gets Unexpected Budget Boost

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Vice President Margarita Popova. Photo by BGNES

The interim government has allocated additional BGN 0.98 M to the Presidency, a draft decree of the Council of Ministers shows.

The document, available on the Finance Ministry's website, reveals BGN 801 000 are to be set aside for President Rosen Plevneliev and Vice President Margarita Popova's visits abroad.

Another BGN 179 000 are to be earmarked for salaries of the presidential administration.

Citing a letter of Rosen Plevneliev to interim Deputy Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev, Bulgarian daily Presa reports the head of state moved on his own to demand the hike, explaining his administration "urgently" needed the funds.

Presidency officials did not immediately comment on the extraordinary funding, but the subsidy should make up for the spending cuts caused by failure to fulfill the state budget's income statement.

Under the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act, the Presidency has some BGN 5.569 M at disposal, and that sum will swell to BGN 6.549 M if the request is given the green light.

During its last session the former Parliament decided that it would transfer money from the President's budget and a number of institutions to that of the National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK), which was (and still is) facing cash shortage worth hundreds of millions of BGN.

The Presidency made a similar request in 2012.

Apart from the presidential institution, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and the Council for Electronic Media (CEM) are also to receive extra funding.

BNT will count on BGN 5 M more as a compensation for spending slashes made during the tenure of the socialist-liberal cabinet.

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