December 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's consolidated budget is projected to be in deficit of 605 million levs ($322.4 million/309.3 million euro) for the 11 months through November, or 0.4% of the planned gross domestic product (GDP), the finance ministry said citing preliminary data.
In November alone, the budget is expected to post a deficit of 610 million levs, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Receipts from advance payments of corporate taxes for 2022 are forecast to exceed 1.3 billion levs in November, which will provide a strong boost to budget revenue, according to the statement.
"The tax windfall also indicates possible overcompensation of certain business sectors, primarily due to the broad scope of support measures for electricity consumers outside the regulated market. Many of the enterprises have already transferred the burden of high energy prices to end-users and households, and the lack of focus on compensation measures has led to a distortion of their financial results with significant profits as a result," the ministry noted.
In addition, measures to remove or lower value-added tax (VAT) on certain goods and services and the increase in VAT refunds will lead to VAT revenue shortfall in 2022.
Consolidated budget revenue is expected to have increased by an annual 17.9% to 56.35 billion levs in the 11 months through November.
At the same time, consolidated budget expenditure, including Bulgaria's contribution to the European Union budget, is seen at some 56.96 billion levs as at end-November, equal to 86.4% of the full-year projection. This compares to expenditure of some 47.1 billion levs in the first 11 months of 2021.
Revenue and expenditure continue to take into account the instalments paid into the country's energy security fund by state-owned energy enterprises on a monthly basis since July.
In the ten months through October, Bulgaria's consolidated budget showed a minimal surplus of 4.8 million levs, based on a deficit of 480.3 million levs and a surplus of 485.1 million levs due to absorption of European funds.
The deficit for October alone stood at 981.4 million levs, as a result of higher-than-estimated expenses, VAT tax refunds to businesses and a rise in social spending due to pension increases.
Compared to end-October 2021, revenue grew by roughly 8.1 billion levs to 50.24 billion levs, whereas expenditure amounted to 50.23 billion levs. Revenue stood at 84.2% of revised annual projections, while expenditure amounted to 76.2% of the projections in the tenth month of 2022.
The end-October fiscal reserve stood at some 12.9 billion levs.
Sovereign debt as at end of October was some 35.3 billion levs, corresponding to 21.8% of the estimated GDP, the ministry said in another statement.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)