The Members of Parliament pay tribute to to the memory of Hristo Botev and all who perished for Bulgaria's freedom and independence

June 2, 2010

On June 2, the Day of Botev and the heroes perished for the freedom of Bulgaria, the M.P.s paid tribute by a minute of silence to the memory of the poet and revolutionary and all who died for the freedom and independence of Bulgaria.

At its plenary sitting on June 2, 2010 the National Assembly adopted at first reading amendments to the National Revenue Agency Act related to the issuance of mandatory instructions by NRA. Authors of the draft amendments are Vanya Doneva, Lily Boyanova and Svetlana Naydenova from GERB. They have pointed out that the purpose of the proposed amendments is to better guarantee avoidance of one-sidedness and incorrectness upon issuance of mandatory instructions by the National Revenue Agency concerning the uniform implementation of tax and social insurance legislation.

The amendments introduce the obligation to coordinate the instructions concerned with the Minister of Finance as well as with the Governor of the National Social Security Institute and the Director of the National Health Insurance Fund as regards matters relating to the mandatory insurance payments. The oversight executed by the Finance Minister and the possibility for the NSSI Governor and the NHIF Director to be part of the process of issuing mandatory instructions regarding unification of the tax and insurance legislation implementation are in the initiators' view an ancillary corrective.

The National Assembly discussed at first reading the proposal to postpone until 2012 the increase of the allowance to pensions received by spouses of diseased persons (the so called jointress' allowance). The proposal for amendments to the Social Insurance Code is initiated by the Council of Ministers. Within the framework of the anti-crisis measures, the M.P.s reduced from 75 down to no more than 30 calendar days the term for receiving allowance for temporary disability which has occurred within one month after termination of labor contract or insurance payment. The measure will be effective until the end of the current year.

Until December 31, 2010 for the first three days of the employees' sick leave the employer will pay 70 percent of the average daily net wage for the month in which the temporary disability has occurred. Thus the National Social Insurance Institute shall cover the sick leave payment from the 4th day onwards. In the course of 6 months these measures shall secure savings of about BGN 2 million, said Minister Totyu Mladenov of Labour and Social Policy. The overall financial effect is expected to reach a BGN 148.5 million reduction of the 2010 public insurance budget expenditure chapter, read the arguments of the amendments' initiator. The minimum guaranteed taking by the employees in case of employer's insolvency is raised from BGN 720 to BGN 1000.