Recent amendments in the adopted measures against the spreading of the COVID-19 in Bulgaria

| Reading Time: 2 Min

Approximately a week after the entering into force of the Bill on the Measures and Actions during the State of Emergency announced by the Bulgarian National Assembly on 13.03.2020 and of Decree No 55/30.03.2020 of the Council of Ministers for payment of compensations to the employers with the aim of retention of the employees jobs during the state of emergency, the Bulgarian Government and the National Assembly started discussing amendments in the acts in order to meet the requirements of the society for a more detailed and clearer formulation of the legislative texts.

Some of the most significant amendments that were introduced and have already entered into force with respect to the state of emergency, are:

  • Except for payment of compensation equal to 60% of the social security base of each employee for January 2020, the Bulgarian National Insurance Institute shall pay also the full amount of the social insurances due by the employer for the employees whose working activity has been suspended due to the state of emergency;
  • The deadline for filing of the applications for payment of the compensation and the social insurances, namely 21.04.2020 with the Bulgarian Employment Agency has been revoked. Applications will be accepted even if submitted after this date.
  • The public authorities and the municipalities shall be allowed to reduce the rent payment or to excempt from payment any private individuals who have leased state or municipality property and have suspended their activity due to the state of emergency;
  • For the duration of the state of emergency the term for adoption of internal anti-money laundering regulations in compliance with the National Risk Assessment as well as other terms under the Measures against Anti-money Laundering Act shall not be applied;
  • The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy decided to grant to parents of children up to 12 years who are using unpaid annual leave for more than 20 days due to the state of emergency shall be entitled to a one-off social aid amounting to BGN 375. The social aim shall be paid subject to the condition that the monthly profit of each family member is not higher than the minimal gross salary (BGN 610);
  • The Managing Board of the Bulgarian National Bank has adopted regulations on the manner of deferral of payments under bank loans. The Bulgarian banks who will choose to apply the regulations shall determine in more detail the requirements towards their clients for applying the deferral of payments measure. The payments under the bank loans could be deferred for not more than 6 months.
Your Contact Persons