The government has amassed a comparatively large budget surplus due to its prudent fiscal policy, and it will be spent transparently, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told journalists on Monday. Nearly half of the surplus will be earmarked for social purposes, and some of it will be spent on infrastructure projects. Stanishev and Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova gave a news conference on topical social problems.

The government is preparing a social package to be implemented this autumn, which will cost nearly 210 million leva in financing from the budget surplus, Maslarova said. This social package does not include the Christmas bonus paid to pensioners, which, according to Stanishev, is expected to be larger than the 100 leva paid last year.

Stanishev did not specify the amount of the surplus as a percentage of GDP expected at the year's end, but said the measures would be implemented without violating the National Budget Act. The surplus will be above the projected 3 per cent of GDP.

The spending of the surplus will be discussed first by the Council of the ruling coalition on Friday, and then by the National Assembly, the prime minister said.

The heating allowance to poor households will increase by 60 per cent to 282 leva, Stanishev said.

The heating allowance will be available to 360,000 households now that the threshold is up by 20 per cent. Also, the families entitled to a heating allowance will get a one-off payment of 100 leva to maintain the purchasing power they had in winter in recent years.

The one-off aid for first-graders is rising from 120 leva to 150 leva.

Maslarova said 483,000 pensioners will each get 100 leva in one-off aid. Between 3,000 and 5,000 pensioners will be entitled to a free holiday in the country's resorts this autumn.

Contributory pensions will be updated from October on the basis of the average monthly contributory income for 2007, set at 398 leva. This will amend the injustice of the last nearly eight years when an old method was used in computing pensions, leading to inequalities between people with equal contributions and length of service. This update will apply to some 1.2 million pensioners, who will get an average raise of 8.5 per cent.

Source: BTA; Photo: BGNES