Balgarianovinite.com Supervisory boards of the National Health Insurance Fund and the National Social Security Institute are expected to discuss the draft budgets of the Fund and State Social Security for next year, the Finance Ministry said.
The move follows a meeting at the Ministry on December 5, where the trade unions, the employers’ organizations and the government reached agreement on the main parameters of the 2026 draft budget.
Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova noted that work on the draft budgets of State Social Security and the National Health Insurance Fund will continue over the weekend so that their supervisory boards can endorse what has been agreed.
The Finance Ministry has already published on its website the main parameters of the revised financial framework of the State for next year.
The budget balance under the consolidated fiscal programme, expressed as a share of GDP, is projected at a deficit of 3.0% of GDP in 2026, 2.8% of GDP in 2027 and 2.4% of GDP in 2028.
Revenues, grants and donations under the consolidated fiscal programme are projected at EUR 50.402 billion in 2026. Total expenditure under the programme is set at EUR 54.051 billion in 2026.
The draft budget provides for the social insurance contribution for the State Social Security Pensions Fund to rise by 1 percentage point from January 1, 2027, and by a further 2 percentage points from January 1, 2028. The minimum social insurance income for self-insured persons will increase from January 1, 2026 to EUR 620.20, while the maximum social insurance income for all insured persons will rise from January 1, 2026 to EUR 2,300, to EUR 2,505 in 2027 and to EUR 2,659 in 2028.
From January 1, 2026, the minimum wage will be set at EUR 620.20, the government plans. Next year the income policy for teaching staff in pre-school and school education will be maintained. In 2026 a programme to support trainee doctors will be launched, with funding of EUR 30 million.
In early November the Finance Ministry published the draft 2026 State Budget Act and an updated 2026–2028 medium-term forecast, setting the consolidated fiscal programme deficit at 3% of GDP for each of the three years and proposing a package of social measures, including a minimum wage of EUR 620.20 from January 1, 2026, higher minimum and maximum contributory incomes, and a stepwise increase in pension contribution rates.
The draft, Bulgaria’s first euro-denominated budget, drew sharp criticism from the Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria coalition: Yes, Bulgaria co-chair Ivaylo Mirchev called it “the worst since the Zhan Videnov era”, objecting in particular to the planned doubling of the dividend tax and the higher social insurance burden and warning of a debt spiral.
As protests mounted and employer organizations twice boycotted tripartite talks, Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee cancelled a second-reading sitting on the State Budget Bill, and the government asked the National Assembly to withdraw the 2026 draft state budget together with the budgets of State Social Insurance and the National Health Insurance Fund.
At a December 2 meeting with employers and trade unions, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said that dropping key revenue-raising measures from the initial draft – including the increase in dividend tax, the planned 2-percentage-point hike in social security contributions and mandatory NRA-approved sales software – had opened a gap of nearly BGN 1.5 billion, which the cabinet intended to cover through cuts in capital spending and additional revenue measures.
On December 5 Petkova announced that, after renewed negotiations, trade unions, employer organizations and the government had reached agreement on the main parameters of a revised 2026 budget: keeping the dividend tax at 5%, abandoning the increase in pension insurance contributions, setting the maximum contributory income at EUR 2,300 and providing for a 10% pay rise for employees in the publicly financed sphere.
The Government Information Service subsequently said the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation will meet on Monday to consider the 2026 draft budgets of the NHIF, Public Social Insurance and the State, after which the Council of Ministers is expected to approve the bills and submit them to Parliament the same afternoon.
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