The 2018 National Budget Bill has passed second reading in parliament.

The revenues, assistance and donations are projected at 23,515,773,100 BGN. It is envisaged that tax receivables will be slightly over 21 billion BGN.

Expenses are projected at 11,923,291,500 BGN, with operational costs amounting to nearly 9.5 billion BGN, of which payments to staff will be 4,482,331,800 BGN.

The total transfer amount from the budget is 11,100,063,700 BGN. 3,264,075 BGN will go to the municipalities, 4,495,090,400 BGN are planned for the state social insurance, and 1,286,186,000 BGN for the National Health Insurance Fund of which the Ministry of Healthcare will receive 24,000,000 BGN.

Our contribution to the EU budget will be slightly over 1 billion BGN. 3,300,000 BGN will be allocated for preparation and implementation of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018, from the budget of the line ministry.

The Parliament adopted the budgets for 2018 of the Ministry of Environment and Waters, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Ministry of Agriculture, Foods, and Forestry, Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, and Ministry of Youth and Sport.

16,707,100 BGN will be allocated for policies on the sustainable development of tourism, which will be implemented through two programmes of the Ministry of Tourism: “Improving policies and regulations in the tourist sector” and “Development of national tourist advertising and international cooperation in tourism”.

175 million BGN of the budget of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications are planned for the Bulgarian National Railways Passenger Services and a subsidy of 17,562,000 BGN for Bulgarian Posts EAD.

17 million BGN of the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, Foods and Forestry are projected for the public service of protection from the harmful effect of waters, assigned to Irrigation Systems EAD.