March 9, Tuesday

HOME SCENE

All dailies report that the rate of health insurance contributions will be raised from 8 per cent to 10 per cent.
"GERB increases the health insurance contribution for the sake of the budget," Sega" writes in a subtitle. According to the business, the trade unions and some political parties, the idea is no good and in actual fact the health care system will not get more money. "Pari" describes the idea as a "Recipe for Failure." Raising the rate of health insurance contributions will be yet another severe blow on the business which is suffering a downturn; employers are categorically against pouring money in a sector that has not been reformed. "GERB Makes U-turn about Taxes, Social Insurance," "Dnevnik" says. GERB economists are considering an increase of the flat  income tax by 2 per cent, too, the daily writes.

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A total of 24 million leva has entered the Treasury after the audits of football clubs and owners of Bentleys and other luxury vehicles, National Revenue Agency (NRA) Director Krassimir Stefanov says in an interview given to "Troud." Forty worried Bulgarians have called the NRA asking what "friends of theirs" holding deposits in Swiss banks should do to avoid tax sanctions. Results of the check of deposits held in Swiss banks by Bulgarians are expected in a month's time. Stefanov has been assured by the German authorities that Bulgarians have substantial amounts of assets in Switzerland, which made the NRA launch checks. He has also been assured that when the investigation conducted in Germany is over, all necessary data will be transferred to Bulgaria. Stefanov proposes not to institute criminal proceedings against persons who cooperate with the tax authorities and confess to tax evasion.

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The NRA should revise its instructions requiring hundreds of entrepreneurs to pay double social insurance contributions, which hits badly small businesses, "Sega" writes. The MPs of  GERB MPs in the parliamentary Budget Committee have insisted on setting up a working group composed of representatives of NRA
and the National Social Insurance Institute to resolve the problem. If no managerial remuneration is agreed, as is in most cases, there should be no deduction of social insurance contributions, Budget Committee Chair Menda Stoyanova is quoted as saying. "This means to revert to the old regulations and company managers will be able to register as self-insureds, paying social insurance contributions on the basis of a minimum of 420 leva," the daily notes.

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"Monitor" says that the vignette system for vehicles using the national network of highways may be abandoned, installing chips similar to the GPS devices that will show the whereabouts of the vehicle at any moment. If the technology is introduced, drivers will pay for the distance their vehicles have actually covered instead for yearly vignettes, MPs of the parliamentary Transport Committee said. The technology will boost the revenue used for road maintenance.

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A new law will ban the participation of relatives even nine-times removed in tenders invited by the government to avoid any conflict of interest. Companies will be able to submit tender documents in their native language without translating them. Brussels will closely monitor all tenders involving contracts for more than 1 million leva.

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Part of the universities in Bulgaria offering training courses in similar specialities will merge and their number will be reduced from 51 to 40, tending to become even fewer. This is the idea in a new higher education bill, "Troud" and "Telegraf"say. The bill should be drafted by the end of this month. "Sega" reports that the introduction of new textbooks in primary schools has been postponed, "Sega" says.

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Kalina Kroumova MP of Ataka is preparing a bill making surrogacy legitimate in Bulgaria, "24 Chassa" writes. Surrogacy is not banned by Bulgarian law but at the moment it almost does not exist. The introduction of the procedure will allow women who cannot carry a child for reasons of health to "hire" a woman who can do that against payment. Under the bill, the method will uses the egg of the intended mother combined with the sperm
of her husband. According to the effective Family Code, the mother of a child is the woman who gave birth to it.

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Any impeachment procedure against the head of state is doomed, Vice President Angel Marin says in an interview for "Troud." Commenting on the Expatriate Bulgarians Act, he says that it is ineffective and should be revised after a broad public debate.

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Holding early elections at the moment is unwise for the state, National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva says in "24 Chassa." "Holding elections now would not be a good sign for Europe and about the stability of the State, first of all. In the conditions of a crisis, the institutions should be strong and conduct a dialogue. "While what happens is just the contrary. The role of the President is to ease strain among the three powers, the head of state and his administration should not trigger tensions, Tsacheva says. "There Is No Use of Inter-institutional War," "Zemya" writes in the headline of an interview with the chairman of the editorial board of the newspaper, Dimiter Ivanov.

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"Sega" runs an article by its deputy editor-in-chief Petyo Tsekov who writes that now GERB has less chances to topple the head of state than four months ago, and the main reason for it is the reduced composition of the informal ruling coalition -the Order, Lawfulness and Justice party dropped out from it.

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The results of early elections may not make anybody happy, sociologist Kuncho Stoychev observes in "24 Chassa." GERB has noproblem with winning the elections but its victory may prove tobe into its greatest loss: a classical Balkan happy end: get the beating, eat the salt and return the money at the end [a popular anecdote in which a thief who was caught stealing had to choose among being hit 50 times with a club, eating one kilo of
salt or return the money. The thief chose the beating first but could not stand it; then chose to eat the salt but could not and at the end gave the stolen money back.]

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"Ataka" leads with an item which says that before his arrest, the former employee of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), Alexei Petrov, had several meetings with President Georgi Purvanov arranged through the rector of the University of National and World Economics. He was on the delegation accompanying Purvanov during his visit to Sweden in October 2007.

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Any reduction in the remuneration of MPs compared with the pay of the other civil servants will be a populists move and will lead to the MPs misappropriating a lot more money in the form of bribes, Associate Professor Ivan T. Todorov writes in "24 Chassa." Paying an MP less than an average manager of a private company will result in corruption.

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Most scientists who have to prevent the spreading of GMOs have been developing them, Hristo Genev and Vesselin Drobenov say in an interview held with "24 Chassa." In 2008, they co-founded the Green party.

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS

"All Bandits Enter Single Register," "Novinar" says in the headline of an interview with Plovdiv Appellation Prosecutor Rossen Dimov. The new software product will be used by the judiciary and the Interior Ministry.

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Before the start of arrests in Sofia, thieves stole six or seven motor cars a day, now the stolen cars are less than five, Sofia Directorate of the Interior Commissioner Valeri Yordanov says in an interview for "Telegraf." There still are five gangs harassing Sofianites, he says.

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Mall employees warn in "24 Chassa" that pickpockets are swarming the shopping centres. Trying to escape the cold weather in winter, many people enter the malls falling prey to pickpockets.

BTA