The VAT reduction measure for the restaurant and tourism sector will not work, nor will it help the branch, predicts the former Deputy Prime Minister Ivaylo Kalfin.
He also criticized the position of Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov on the state budget. "Obviously, the finance minister is not making a budget policy, he is guarding the budget as an accountant who is afraid of something being changed in the company's balance sheet./…/ Financial stability makes sense when the state helps in times of crisis. The crisis is manageable. One of the methods is fiscal policy or budget policy. We have voluntarily given up this instrument and we’ve been bragging we have the lowest debt in Europe. The lowest debt makes sense so as to generate resources and help the economy when it is in crisis. In our country, this conception is not understood, "Kalfin commented.
On Sunday (May 24th), during another jeep tour around the country, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said reducing VAT on restaurants and hotels was a mistake and a political decision he was willing to take the risk of. "Goranov is a highly respected specialist and I am convinced that changing VAT, taxes, revenues is an absolute mistake. I have no hesitation inthat matter. When Menda Stoyanova and Goranov told me this was a mistake, I said: "Yes, I can take the political responsibility for that mistake," the prime minister explained.
The reduction of VAT for a given branch is a reason for each other sector to ask for it, stressed the Minister of Finance. He explained that if this path is followed, the entire tax policy will have to be reconsidered at some point, which is not impossible but it should not be done this way. Goranov added that reducing a tax automatically leads to increasing another. The Minister made it clear he had accepted he could not stop the process and was already drawing positive scenarios after the entry into force of the lower rates.
“It is one thing to understand politics as driving around the country in a jeep that distributes money against kissing PM’s hand – we see humiliating behavior of mayors to get some extra money. It is quite another to consider our common money as something we all have the responsibility for in order to achieve the best effect of it. There will be a political change when the Bulgarians realize the state is theirs and that it does not belong to some ruler that you’ll have to praise in order to get certain benefits. The state belongs to all of us and it must work equally for all – both for the big and for the small ", commented the former Deputy Prime Minister Ivaylo Kalfin to BNR.
