Vasil Velev: A long-term mechanism is being sought to support businesses in the event of a surge in electricity prices
Incomes have been raised, ahead of inflation. If we talk about the minimum wage, it has been raised by 38% in two years, the chairman of the AICB also explains
"We remain on alert - code yellow, conditionally". This was commented to BNR by Vasil Velev, chairman of the Board of the Association of Industrial Capital (AICB), in connection with the postponed protests by businesses against high electricity prices.
The parliamentary groups they met with assured them that they would support legislative provisions allowing the Ministry of Energy and the Council of Ministers to draw up a program to compensate for the excessively high prices. There was also talk of a medium-term mechanism that would provide security to investors and work in such situations, and not "when prices explode", to raise alarm, explained Velev.
A proposal has also been submitted for these provisions to apply for the entire year 2025, not just for the three months - until March, during which the temporary law on revenues and expenditures is in effect until the adoption of a budget law, he emphasized.
"It will come into force on January 1."
The price in Sweden today is 30 leva, in our country it is nearly 300 leva, and we are in a common market. Obviously, we have problems here, in Southeast Europe, for which it would be good for the government to seek compensation at the European level, Vasil Velev pointed out.
He added that the regulated price of 138 leva per megawatt hour is for kindergartens, schools, prayer houses and community centers.
"This program is self-financed, it does not use funds from the budget," Velev specified.
"These are not just subsidies, but partial compensations - partial recovery of what was taken. If we can talk about subsidies - this is for households, because there the price is below the price of the mix."
Non-household consumers are over 600,000 and this includes not only manufacturing enterprises, but also the social sphere, healthcare, culture, administration, Vasil Velev also said. In his words, everyone who is not a household consumer is affected by these extremely high prices.
In any case, it is good to quickly adopt a law for the whole year, because according to this temporary law, greater expenses will be incurred, but in order to collect greater revenues, changes are needed, and retroactive aggravations cannot be introduced, commented the chairman of the AICB
"On this trajectory, which we have been moving on for the last 2-3 years, we will certainly crash," said Vasil Velev regarding fears of a large deficit.
In Romania, policies of inflated deficits and social spending were followed and now they are forced to freeze incomes - a milder Greek scenario. In order for this not to happen, a more reasonable budget policy is needed, he added.
"Incomes have been raised ahead of inflation. If we talk about the minimum wage, it has been raised by 38% in two years, and by 15% this year alone."
The expectations are that inflation will meet the requirements for December, Velev indicated regarding the criteria for the eurozone.
"So that there is no inflation greater than the natural rate, that is why there are these programs to compensate for the excessively high prices."