The 2008 H1 revenue in Sofia's budget is 28 per cent higher year-on-year, Deputy mayor for Finance Minko Gerdjikov told municipal councillors Saturday. The updating of Sofia's budget in September will be related to restructuring and internal transfers of unabsorbed funds under different items, he added.

A total of 128 million leva of the 240 million set down in the budget for pecuniary taxes have been collected. Other figures include 27 million leva of a total of 42 million leva for real estate taxes, 76 million out of 151 million leva of taxes on pecuniary deals, 116 million leva out of the 201 million leva stamp duties collected by Sofia City Hall, but only 1.7 million out of the 7.1 million leva planned for patent taxes on the territory of Sofia.

The reason, according to Gerdjikov, is the fact that part of the traders have passed from paying patent tax to another type of tax payment.

A total of 1.974 million of the 10 million leva set down in the budget for advertisement fees have been collected and nearly 30 per cent of the planned revenue from sale of municipal property has been achieved. In addition, 5 million leva of the 40 million set aside for nationalization intended for infrastructure projects have been spent, BTA reported.

Speaking of education, Gerdjikov said a shortage of 12 million leva is looming on the horizon by the end of the year as schools in some boroughs have spent their delegated budgets for 2008 even in the first half of the year. An additional 6.2 million leva will be required for the schools to complete their financial year in a normal fashion, the Deputy mayor said.