The Association of Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE) and Democratic Bulgaria will enhance their cooperation after the elections. This was promised today by the two associations during a meeting to discuss business recommendations for the 2022 budget.
Employers reaffirmed their priority for our country's accession to the Eurozone and the OECD and said they would rely on Democratic Bulgaria to accelerate the necessary reforms in the judiciary and achieve the necessary standards for the rule of law, security of property, curbing corruption and efficiency of public spending. The representatives of BICA, BIA, BCCI and KRIB categorically announced their support for maintaining tax stability while maintaining the levels of tax rates and the 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.
The policies related to anti-crisis measures, including accelerated investment of European funds, were identified as extremely important by AOBE. Among them are maintaining the measure for maintaining employment, implementing a measure for financing the fixed costs of enterprises with a large decline in revenues, as well as measures to compensate Bulgarian enterprises for the unprecedentedly high, often exceeding EWRC estimates, electricity and natural gas prices.
AOBE also insisted on strict adherence to the cost-covering principle in the formation of state and municipal fees. 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 drawn up on the basis that the fee is calculated on a “polluter pays” basis.
“It is extremely important for us to establish working communication with business representatives. This is one of the most important goals so that we can take into account the assessments and recommendations in the implementation of various measures and policies. The main priorities of “Democratic Bulgaria” are achieving quality of legislation, adherence to the minimum of the norms set by the EU, increasing the efficiency of public spending. We believe that we will find a partner for the difficult steps that need to be taken”, said the chairman of Democratic Bulgaria Hristo Ivanov.
Among the other important recommendations of AOBR were to look for opportunities to include in the budget estimates for the implementation of specific reforms in the health insurance system with emphasis on prevention and prophylaxis, suspension of the administrative determination of the minimum wage and pension, termination of first three days sick leave payment by companies.
The participants in the meeting were unanimous that the administrative reform and e-government should be accelerated in order to improve the business environment and ensure economic growth in Bulgaria.
