Bulgaria loses 100M leva annually from VAT fuel fraud - ministry

Bulgaria loses on average 80-100 million leva every year from unpaid value added tax (VAT) on fuels trade, according to Finance Ministry data, but industry union Bulgarian Petroleum and Gas Association (BPGA) believes the figure to be double the official estimate, mediapool.bg reported on February 12 2008.

No taxes are paid on roughly 30 per cent of all the fuels sold in the country, a problem BPGA wants the Government to tackle by introducing an operations license requirement for all filling stations.

The industry union won the support of Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski, who met with the BPGA on February 12, who even suggested that the association should have a role in issuing the licenses.

Too many petrol stations were unsafe and introducing the license requirement was a way to force them to either follow the rules, or go out of business, Andrei Delchev, BPGA chairman said. However, it should not be considered a universal solution that would fix all the problems, he added.

To implement the license requirement, Bulgaria will need to amend its existing legislation, stipulating the technical, environmental and financial criteria for receiving one. That alone would prevent companies being set up to carry out a single massive import deal, only to fold up days later before paying the VAT, Delchev said.

Source : Sofia Echo - Bulgaria, dated 12/02/2008