-
Denitsa Zagorcheva, Y. Velcheva
BUDGET DECENTRALISATION AS A FACTOR FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES
AND THE INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS
Summary:
The article presents the results of a study on budget decentralisation and its effects on the development of municipalities and the industrial business. The objective is to reveal the relationship and interdependence between municipalities’ own-source revenues, which are characteristic of their financial and investment policies, and the extent to which industries are developed on their territories. The development of the industrial business is not directly affected, however, by the investment policy of the municipalities. Nevertheless, it contributes greatly to the increase of their own-source revenues.
-
Lyudmil Naydenov
Inter-Jurisdictional Tax Competition – the Bulgarian Case
Summary:
The paper highlights the specific features of inter-jurisdictional tax competition, and the related positive effects and risks. It analyzes the tax policy of the Bulgarian local authorities and discusses the factors limiting the inter-jurisdictional tax competition in our country. On the basis of specific data on the dynamics of the rates of key local taxes, it is argued that there is lack of a targeted policy of attracting and retaining a tax base through the manipulation of tax rates. It is concluded that the tax rates of the local taxes in Bulgaria are most often at the average of the legally defined upper and lower limits. It is supported that the low value of the ratio Revenues and aids in the municipal budgets / GDP does not motivate entrepreneurs to invest in a particular jurisdiction because of the differences in the absolute amount of local taxes.
-
Mariyana Pavlova Banova
FISCAL DECENTRALISATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA – FINANCIAL EFFECTS AND REGIONAL ASPECTS
Summary:
Fiscal decentralization, which aims to enhance local au¬to¬no¬my in terms of transferring rights, obligations and duties from a gover¬n¬men¬tal to a municipal level, needs to ensure the efficient exploitation of public resources and the provision of high-quality public services at the optimum cost. Changes in local govern¬ment which have been going on for two decades now raise the issue of the results which have been achieved in this respect so far. The objective of this paper is to study the degree of decentralization of the public sector in Bul-garia and to assess the financial independence, investment activity and effi-ciency of selected municipalities in Bulgaria.
-
Mariyana Pavlova Banova
FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION IN EUROPE: EFFECTS ON LOCAL GOVERNMENTS’ FISCAL AUTONOMY
Summary:
The European Charter of Local Self-Government, which was ratified by almost all European member states, provides for the decentralization of power and the transfer of competences and financial resources to local communities as well as extends local authorities’ tax collection and budgetary spending responsibilities. In reality, however, the increased spending responsibilities and the limited self-financing powers of the municipalities in our country raise the question of the degree of their dependence on the cen¬tral government. This paper presents a survey which aims to measure and assess the degree of tax autonomy of local governments in Bulgaria compared to their counterparts from other EU member states by means of a set of indicators and thus to determine one of the effects of fiscal decentralization – lo¬cal self-government’s tax autonomy.
