THE BUDGET SURPLUS
Bulgaria’s budget surplus reached 3.3 billion levs (1.5 billion Euros) in the end of May 2008, according to the Ministry of Finance. While 2.7 billion levs come from the budget, 590 million levs come from European funding. According to the current law the annual surplus should not exceed 3% of the GDP, i.e. 1.8 billion levs.
Recently, the 360 million USD from the Iraqi debt to Bulgaria have been paid but this amount will not be considered part of the surplus. The collection of V.A.T. goes as planned and so far, 38.9% or 3.1. billion levs have been collected, while the one of direct tax is even better – about 50% of the planned amounts have been collected. The capital gain tax payment has increased by 30% in comparison to the last year with a surplus of 300 million levs. The income tax collected until the end of May 2008 is 800 million levs and it represents 37% of the planned receipts.