SOFIA, Bulgaria, March 25 (UPI) -- The Bulgarian government announced new salary limits for state employees Thursday as protests mounted over a proposed 2 percent sales tax increase.
At a Cabinet meeting in Sofia, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov told ministers to review all of their departments' payrolls to ensure no employee earns more than they do, the Sofia News Agency reported.
Economy Minister Traicho Traikov supported the reining in of salaries.
"When everybody suffers, everybody has got to suffer," he said.
There was no indication of how exceptions would be made for certain employees, including hospital directors and air traffic controllers, the report said.
Meanwhile, various tourism officials spoke out against a proposed 2 percent increase in the national sales tax to 22 percent, the Pari daily reported.
"Bulgaria's revenues from foreign tourists amount to $3.3 billion per year, which means that the tax hike may incur losses worth $66 million," Lyubomir Pankovski, executive director of Alma Tour travel agency, told the newspaper.
