Bulgarian revenue agency closes down 40 petrol stations
More than 40 petrol stations have been closed by the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency (NRA) because they have failed to link their tills electronically to the agency, Investor.bg reported on January 11 2011.Starting from January 8, all cash registers in petrol stations were supposed to be wired directly to the NRA, a strategy which aims to curtail illegal contraband, and funnel between 250-300 million leva into the state Budget.But hours after the measure came into effect, 40 petrol stations either failed to have their tills linked, and were subsequently ordered to close, or simply did not bother to open for business at all because they were unprepared.According to the report, in the next few days, all petrol stations in Bulgaria will be investigated by agents, who have vowed to fine establishments up to 10 000 leva if they flout the new regulations. Alternatively, they could be closed for business altogether.The NRA say that 3000 petrol stations in Bulgaria account for 400 million leva in monthly turnover. But the contraband with petrol is rampant and a large part of the black economy, a fact which the Government, led by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, wants to stamp out once and for all."Contraband with petrol will be consigned to the past from January 8 2011," Borissov was quoted as saying by mass circulation 24 Chassa daily on December 21 2010."Those 300 million leva were part of the country's grey economy, hence the stiff resistance," Borissov said, implying that the measure to link the petrol stations with the NRA was met with opposition from other political parties in Parliament.