Bulgaria's Parliament

Bulgaria's parliament on Friday expanded the scope of tax levied on games of chance to include bingo, keno and their varieties.

According to amendments to the Gambling Act adopted on second and final reading, the organizers of the newly included lottery games will have to pay a 15% turnover tax if betting is made in gambling premises or casinos.

Bulgaria's Parliament on Thursday turned down a proposal to increase tax on interest earned from bank deposits to 10% from the current 8% from 2015.

The proposal was submitted by the centre-right GERB party, the biggest partner in the coalition government.

The Parliament rejected the motion in second and final reading in a 95-77 vote with four abstentions.

Lawmakers in Bulgaria's Parliament set up twelve permanent Committees on Thursday and are to create the remaining ten on Friday, amid controversy over how seats are allocated.

Most party group Chairmen remained ordinary members of committees, with the exception of Bulgarian Democratic Center (BDC)'s Svetlin Tanchev, who is presiding over the committee on European affairs.

Bulgaria's Parliament will discuss at first reading on Wednesday draft amendments to personal income tax law and the reintroduction of progressive tax.

The two different draft amendments - tabled by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the left-wing nationalists Ataka - were overruled last week by the interim parliamentary budget and finances committee.

The Budget and Finance Committee at Bulgaria's Parliament has given the government a mandate to start talks over a fresh foreign borrowing of up to BGN 3 B.

The remaining BGN 1.5 B, out of BGN 4.5 B that the cabinet will additionally need for a planned budget update, are to be raised by issuing government securities on the domestic market.

Bulgaria's Parliament will discuss at an extraordinary meeting the budget update.

Last week the interim parliamentary committee on budget and finances approved the update of the budget of the national health insurance fund (NZOK) and the proposed update of the state budget.

NZOK will get additional BGN 100 M.

Mandatory voting could be introduced in Bulgaria as early as 2015, ruling party GERB's Deputy Chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov says.

"For me it is more important to have 70-80% of voters determining representation in Bulgaria's Parliament, rather than 48 percent, as at the last vote," Tsvetanov, also a former Foreign Minister (2009-2013) told daily 24 Chasa.

The temporary Budget and Finance Committee at Bulgaria's Parliament has approved the allocation of BGN 100 M more to the National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK).

MPs passed the bill overwhelmingly, with 15 voting yes, none against and four abstained.

A bill to overhaul the 2014 budget will be put forward for discussion in the provisional Budget and Finance Committee of BUlgaria's Parliament.

The draft legislation was submitted to the National Assembly after the government adopted its text on Tuesday.

It envisages an increased budget deficit of BGN 2.992 B (3.7 percent of GDP) and a cap of this year's debt worth BGN 4.5 B.

Bulgaria's Parliament is to vote Wednesday on the resignation of the Deputy Chair of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) Nikolay Popov, who resigned on Tuesday for personal reasons.

Popov was elected FSC Chair on May 22, 2012 and his term in office was to end on July 15, 2015, according to the website of the commission, as cited by dnevnik.bg.