Bulgaria Registers Budget Surplus in April Thanks to Central Bank Contribution
Bulgaria registered a monthly surplus of BGN 190 M in April 2011, the second month in a row with a positive balance, the Finance Ministry announced.
The April surplus appears to have resulted from the contribution of BGN 200.9 M of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) to the state budget, which is a leftover from BNB's 2010 surplus. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's fiscal reserve appears to have been depleted further.
In March 2011, Bulgaria's budget registered a surplus of only BGN 8 M.
In the first four months of 2011, however, Bulgaria's budget deficit amounts to BGN 552 M, or 0.7% of the projected GDP.
The financial result for January-April 2011 is an improvement of BGN 748 M (1.1 percentage points of GDP) on cash basis compared with the first four months of 2011 when Bulgaria's budget deficit amounted to BGN 1.299 B (1.8% of the projected GDP).
In the first four months of 2011, Bulgaria's national budget saw a deficit of BGN 436.3 M, while the deficit in the EU transactions (i.e. Bulgaria's EU funding minus its contribution to the common EU budget) amounted to BGN 115 M.
By the end of April, Bulgaria's budget revenues amounted to BGN 7.95 B, or 30.3% of the projected 2011 income.
The Finance Ministry points out that the revenues grew by 6.1%, or BGN 456.7 M year-on-year, thanks to the increase of indirect tax revenues (up by BGN 445.2 M, or 17.9%), and the higher income from social security and health insurance payments.
The state revenues from direct taxes such as corporate tax were about the same as the amount raised in the same period of 2010.
In January-April 2011, Bulgaria's tax revenues were BGN 6.497, or 81.7% of the total state income.
BGN 1.473 B were raised from direct taxes, which is 38.8% of the 2011 direct tax income projection.
The revenues from indirect taxes amounted to BGN 2.925 B, or 28.1% of the annual projection, including BGN 1.798 B (27.7% of the expected 2011 amount) from VAT, and BGN 1.086 B (28.6%) from excise taxes. (Source: Sofia News Agency)