BULGARIA. The country currently resembles a “duty free zone” for cigarettes because of a glut of imported cigarettes without excise-duty labels, according to deputy finance minister Stamen Tassev.
Claiming that the country’s duty free border stores are the source of big volumes of cigarettes re-sold on the domestic market, Tassev said that turnover at the stores decreased threefold during a week-long check carried out by the Chief Tax Directorate – or by some BGN 300,000 (US$177,000).
The country’s border trade has to be better regulated to protect budget revenues, Tassev said. After the results of the check are analysed, the authorities will decide on the fate of the free shops.
All Bulgaria’s 40 border shops were inspected. This showed that duty free shops sell mainly cigarettes -“99.99% of the total sales”, Tassev said.
The PARI Daily reported: “Shops which used to sell 40 master boxes of cigarettes in a couple of days did not sell a single box during the check-up, Tassev explained. The inspection found that one client had bought 744 boxes of cigarettes at once. That does not breach the law because there is no restriction on the quantity, but it can in no case be called retail trade, Tassev said.”
It continued: “The duty free shops are intended to serve the flow of outgoing passengers. Regretfully, the check-up showed that three times more cigarettes are bought from incoming passengers.”
As earlier reported, Finance Minister Milen Velchev has proposed the closure of the border stores by year-end. He claims the stores are fuelling the black economy.
