With a hole of BGN 55 million in the budget, Kostadin Dimitrov took over the Municipality, which objects will he cut?

Only BGN 150 million of the planned BGN 242 million in local revenues for 2023 was collected by the Plovdiv Municipality by November. This shows the budget report of the city authorities for the first 10 months of the year and shows the financial situation in which the mayor Kostadin Dimitrov finds the treasury.

In the most optimistic version, which is foreseen by the municipal financiers, by the end of the year, BGN 187 million will be collected from taxes, fees and revenues, and the budget shortfall will be BGN 55 million.

The huge hole that will gape in the budget is due to the unrealistic budget that was made by the mayor Zdravko Dimitrov and his deputy for finance Velichko Rodopski. They inflated the budget to the max in order to justify the contracts they made over the last year.

As can be seen from the report, the biggest default in the revenue part is from acquisition tax. With 44 million BGN pledged, only 26 million BGN were collected as of November. 50% is the implementation of the income from property, which includes sales of buildings, for 10 months BGN 16.6 million was collected with BGN 31.5 million pledged. There is also a large non-fulfilment of revenues from direct taxes – tax on buildings and motor vehicles, as well as from fees such as solid waste.

From the other revenues, the numbers look desperate from fines, sanctions and penal interest – with 10 million BGN pledged, 4 million BGN were collected. For the use of markets and the right of way from the planned BGN 14 million – the revenue is half.

All this affects the expenditure side as well, as various payments are currently withheld in order to avoid a deficit at the end of the year.

In the municipal budget, for every lev of income there must be an expenditure. This means that for the projected income there are certain objects that must be fulfilled. Given that there will be a default of BGN 55 million, this means that a number of projects that have been started will be postponed or frozen.

However, this decision will be taken by the mayor Kostadin Dimitrov. Dozens of sites are currently underway and others are about to launch.

Among the largest objects that are implemented with municipal funds are the reconstruction of Rogoshko road, the sports centers in “Severen”, the hall in Smirnenski, “Vladaya” street and others.