Parliament Starts Debate on Budget Overhaul, C-Bank's Report on KTB

Domestic | October 31, 2014, Friday // 09:46|  views

Unlike the central bank's governor Ivan Iskrov (L), the biggest party GERB believes KTB should be restored to health, with Budget Committee chair Menda Stoyanova (R) urging amendments to current legislation. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian lawmakers are discussing amendments to the 2014 budget and two documents about the situation at Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) on Friday.

Interim Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki submitted earlier this week a proposal to the newly-convened Parliament to update the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act.

The draft envisages a budget deficit reaching 4% of Bulgaria's GDP to ensure all ministries and other institutions will be able to service their current payments.

It could also include additional funds for the Deposits Insurance Fund (DIF) which should be used to restore the savings of depositors at KTB, which have been unable to access their assets since this summer.

The biggest party GERB insists a deficit below 4 percent would be dangerous and would freeze activity at some ministries.

In July the previous legislature failed to overhaul the budget amid brawls between parties seeking to distance themselves from each other.

As for KTB, which has been under conservatorship of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) since mid-June, MPs are to discuss the central bank's report submitted Monday which suggests the BNB expects KTB to report negative equity, a prerequisite for revoking its license within 20 days in order to start paying deposits up to EUR 100 000.

However, an interim budget committee in Parliament presided by GERB's Menda Stoyanova dismissed on Wednesday the report of BNB, preparing its own draft project to save KTB and approving amendments to the Credit Institutions Act under which the BNB will have to save banks reporting negative equity.

The central bank for its part believes such a move will impose a heavy burden on the state by forcing it into saving the bank with its own funds.

Stoyanova told the Bulgarian National Radio on Thursday GERB would propose that the BNB hand within three days its estimate on the macroeconomic effect of a prospective move to declare KTB insolvent.

She explained the proposal with a possible intervention of "an investor" willing to pump EUR 1 B into the bank.

Left-wing Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV)'s Ivaylo Kalfin believes the BNB should be given the opportunity to deliver within thirty days two separate analyses on the aftermath of both options - recovery or failure.


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Tags: KTB, Corporate Commercial Bank, Corpbank, Menda Stoyanova, GERB, ABV, BNB, Ivaylo Kalfin, parliament, budget committee, budget overhaul, DIF, State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act

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