June 2021 / Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Ministry of Economy has signed an agreement with several commercial banks and now small and medium-sized businesses can apply for loans without collateral. This was announced by the Minister of Economy Kiril Petkov at a briefing on Tuesday.

Companies that have been operating for at least 3 years can apply for these loans. The loan is for up to 7 years, and the first 12 months can be requested for a grace period.

The recovery fund secures 80% of the loan, the remaining 20% ​​is a risk for the bank.

The maximum amount is BGN 3 million for an individual loan or up to 70% of the company's revenues for 2019 or 2020, explained Minister Vassilev.

Source: Novinite

Bulgaria's Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) has endorsed a price of 45.27 leva/MWh for natural gas, effective June 1, 2021, the regulator said in a press release on Monday.

The new price, which excludes the charges for access, transmission, excise duty and VAT, is 20 per cent higher than its May 1 level (37.71 per cent) and 122 per cent up from June 1, 2020.

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission specified that the new higher gas price will not result in increase in prices of heating and electricity in June.

The press release lists three reasons for the natural gas price rise:

• the ongoing increase of prices on international gas markets;
• the fact that Bulgargaz has had to purchase the amounts of gas it needs at spot prices from other suppliers because the TurkStream gas pipeline is being repaired in the territory of Turkey in June;
•  the smaller amounts of gas from Azerbaijan entering Bulgaria than those capable of being transmitted through the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) between Komotini and Stara Zagora, whose commissioning has been postponed for the middle of next year.

The social partners have discussed a proposal to redesign a 60/40 job retention scheme in support of businesses and employees, Deputy Prime Minister Galab Donev told journalists on Monday after a meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC). The measure will be considered by the government and will take effect from June 1, said Donev who is also Labour and Social Policy Minister. All procedures under the current measure will be completed, he added. The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions backs the change, whereas the Podkrepa Labour Confederation is abstaining because it does not apply to miners in the Maritsa East Complex. All social partners rallied around an extension of State support until the end of the year. Employer organizations support the proposed changes but want to add air carriers into the scope, said Vasil Velev of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association. Bulgaria has 20 air carriers, of which 13 are commercial and are in a dire situation. They also want support to apply to workers appointed between January and April 2021. Vanya Grigorova of Podkrepa said that with the VAT rate cut from 20 per cent to 9 per cent has cost 234 million leva in budget revenues this year, yet the government is unwilling to allocate 20 million leva to aid the mines. Grigorova added that some 2,000 miners will be laid off by the end of 2021 or the beginning of next year. "Either we keep one of our baseload capacities, which guarantees the energy stability (the Maritsa East 2 TPP), or we won't have electricity during the winter," she said. Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said the budget is being updated. Thanks to the tax authorities' performance and the improved economic situation, extra revenues will range between 1 and 1.5 billion leva. The budget update will keep the level of sovereign debt and budget deficit unchanged. The additional budget revenues will go towards anti-COVID measures targeting businesses, workers and pensioners.