site.btaFinance Minister Says Taxes Will Not Increase

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev Friday said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been talking about a tax increase in the last 20 years, but a tax increase is not on the table in Bulgaria. He was commenting on a remark by Jean-Francois Dauphin that one of the recommendations would be to return the VAT rate in all sectors to the pre-pandemic 20% across the board. Dauphin heads an IMF mission to Bulgaria.

VAT is back to 20% for all except restaurants, Vassilev said, adding that this was also recommended by the Finance Ministry.

Inflation is falling quite quickly and stands at 3.3% this month, this is below the target for joining the euro area, Vassilev said. He recalled that generally, inflation for the past 12 months is taken into account. "The question is in which month we will get the average inflation rate below the target. At present, we expect this to happen some time between June and September," Vassilev said.

He also said a convergence report, which is made for all countries, is due in June. "We have agreed with the European Commission that as soon as we meet the inflation target, we will ask for an additional convergence report, which will allow us to join the euro area in 2025," the Finance Minister said.

Asked if Bulgaria will join on January 1, 2025 or later, Vassilev said this depended on when it would meet the inflation target.

He participated in a conference organized by the Finance Ministry on the opportunities and threats to business during Bulgaria's accession to the euro area.