The Association of Organizations of Bulgarian Employers and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms united around the opinion on maintaining tax stability in Bulgaria and reducing administrative fees during a meeting to discuss the recommendations of the representative business organizations for Budget 2022. Both the representatives of AOBE, and those of the MRF are adamant that the strict observance of the cost-covering principle should be applied in the formation of the state and municipal fees.
AOBE has categorically announced its support for maintaining the levels of tax rates and levels of social security contributions for 2022. According to the organization, this is one of the main factors for encouraging investment and providing conditions for economic growth. Once again, employers' organizations objected to the continuous postponement of the calculation of the household waste fee based on real pollution and demanded that the 2022 Budget be prepared on the basis that the fee is calculated on a “polluter pays” basis.
According to the employers' organizations, regardless of the complex political situation, the debates on the priorities and policies of Budget 2022 should be on the public agenda and the project should be submitted and voted on as soon as possible when constructing the new parliament.
AOBE has requested that the 2022 state budget provide funding for policies to address the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and the energy crisis. In their recommendations to the budget, the four nationally representative organizations want the budget for next year to include resources for conducting policies to improve the business environment, as well as opportunities to ensure economic growth in Bulgaria.
The policies related to anti-crisis measures, including accelerated investment of European funds, were identified as extremely important by AOBE. Among them are the preservation of the measure for maintaining employment, the application of a measure for financing the fixed costs of enterprises with a decrease in sales revenues over 30% compared to those implemented in 2019, which will support the liquidity of Bulgarian enterprises. Representatives of business organizations demanded the timely start of projects under some of the EU programs, and with their approval by the EC to immediately proceed to the signing of contracts so as not to lose another 6 months.
Among other important recommendations of AOBE were to look for opportunities to include in the budget estimates for the implementation of specific reforms in the health insurance system, suspension of the administrative increase of the minimum wage and pension, termination of payment by companies for the first three days sick leave and others.
