site.btaTrade Unions Confederation Insists on 10% Salary Increase in State-Owned Media as of Jan. 1, 2026, Excess Profit Tax Introduction

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) insists that the 2026 budget should include funds for a salary increase of at least 10% in state-owned public media outlets as of January 1, CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov told reporters in Varna on Monday. He added that the same should happen in some of the agencies. The CITUB also insists on raising the salaries of employees in the Executive Forests Agency, the Hail Suppression Agency, and the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, Dimitrov added. The union calls for higher pay for employees in the regional agricultural services. "I have reason to believe that these demands will be met," Dimitrov said.

The CITUB is against decoupling the minimum wage from the average wage. Dimitrov's position was that the issue should be renegotiated with employers rather than waiting for the State to make unilateral decisions. He added that a new formula for determining the minimum wage should be developed.

"No one wants to touch taxes, but there are sectors that are very profitable," the CITUB President said. He said that there should be taxation on excess profits and specified that EU legislation allows this and that it is applied in many Member States. The CITUB proposes a one-off tax to be imposed on the financial and gambling sectors, Dimitrov added. In his words, revenue from just one of these sectors could contribute more than BGN 1 billion to the state budget.

"They say that taxes will not be raised, but nothing is said about whether social security contributions will be increased," the CITUB President said. He recalled that this has already happened and did not rule out the possibility of this step being taken again next year.

Dimitrov said that he is not against the reintroduction of the progressive tax in Bulgaria, but when the discussion on changes in tax policy begins, this option should not be the only one discussed. The real issues are the taxation of excess profits, financial transactions, and the digital sector, he said. He added that changes in profit tax and corporate tax, the latter of which he said are among the lowest in Europe, should also be discussed.