ic plan and therefore seldom, if ever, correspond to
the original estimates, which have the force of law.

Systematic publication of budgetary data was discontinued in the
mid-1960s. Since then only scattered figures have become available
through press reports on the presentation of the budget to the National
Assembly and occasional articles by the minister of finance or other
ministry officials.

The annual budgets have grown steadily larger. The approved budget for
1973 called for revenues of 7,057 million leva and expenditures of 7,035
million leva. In 1970 actual revenues totaled 5,723 million leva, the
expenditures amounted to 5,650 million leva. Usually about 90 percent of
budgetary revenue has been derived from operations of the economy, and
the remainder has been raised through a variety of levies on the
population. The largest single item of revenue--more than 30 percent of
the total--has been collected in the form of a turnover tax on sales
that has been passed on to the ultimate consumer. The second most
important revenue source has consisted of levies on enterprises in the
form of a profits tax, a tax on fixed capital (interest charge) and
miscellaneous other deductions from income. Social security taxes based
on payrolls have been the third major source. Levied at a rate of 12.5
percent through 1972, the social security tax was raised by 20 percent
in 1973 in order to meet rising costs. In 1972 about four-fifths of the
turnover tax and two-thirds of the revenue from taxes on profits and
capital was to be derived from industry.

In December 1972 the BKP Central Committee plenum embarked upon a
gradual modification of the income tax system that would eventually lead
to a total abolition of income taxes for wage earners and collective
farmers by 1980. Initially, the existing system is to be improved by
introducing unified taxation for all blue- and white-collar workers and
collective farmers and by establishing a tax exemption equal to the
official minimum rate of pay. Gradual elimination of all income taxes
for these population groups in the 1976-80 period is to be synchronized
with the contemplated reform of wage scales. At the same time a system
of progressive taxation is to be introduced on incomes derived from
activities in the private sector that are not in conformity with the
amount of labor invested.

The most complete recent information on budgetary expenditures is
available from the approved budg