As soon as GERB gets back into power, it will scrap every populist cap and tax idea the current government has come up with. That's what party leader Boyko Borisov told a meeting of GERB's Youth Academy at the Boris Hristov House of Culture in Plovdiv.
He was talking about the windfall taxes on banks and retail chains. Borisov says the burden won't fall on the banks and chains themselves — it will end up in the final price paid by shoppers.
"Traders and banks will never be the ones who pay it — people will end up digging into their own pockets again," said the former prime minister.
Borisov accused the governing majority of populist moves that put the market economy and businesses at risk, naming the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party directly. His own party, he said, is a center-right conservative force that has always stood for low taxes and backing the entrepreneurs who create the country's GDP. While GERB was in power, he said, GDP more than tripled, from 34 billion euros to over 116 billion euros.
His second warning was about legal changes that let the refinery export diesel abroad. He said this sets the stage for an artificial shortage and another jump in fuel prices.
Surplus fuel produced at lower cost, instead of easing prices for people at home, gets exported — and only a handful of oligarchic circles close to the government benefit from that, the GERB leader said. If international conflicts escalate and supplies get cut off, a diesel shortage would trigger mass speculation, he warned.
Borisov also raised questions about how the state budget was planned. By the end of September, the deficit stood at 2.2%, while the draft budget sets a deficit of 5.7% to be reached in the remaining three months of the year. He asked how the deficit could stay just above 2% for eight months and then double or more in two or three months. According to Borisov, that's only possible if extra spending is being planned behind the scenes.
He also pointed to warnings from international rating agencies and the European Commission that excessive public spending and high inflation could push the country into a severe crisis resembling Greece's past troubles.