Both the government and the opposition alarm about fuel speculation

Another small petrol station in Rousse closed for an indefinite period of time due to high fuel prices and unfair competition from large retail chains and suppliers. According to both the government and the opposition, there is price abuse.

Statistics show that over the past year fuel prices in the country have increased by an average of 50%: the average price of the most popular petrol A-95 today is BGN 3.35 per litre and diesel is BGN 3.45. For comparison - a year ago the prices were: BGN 2.12 per litre for petrol and 2.11 for diesel.

Today, opposition GERB demanded the immediate establishment of ad-hoc committee to investigate the price shock at petrol stations, and power-sharing “Democratic Bulgaria” proposed four specific measures.

Ventsislav Pengezov is the owner of two petrol stations. He has been in business since 1997. He says that he has never encountered such a problem before. That is why he had to resort to the last resort of closing one of his petrol stations indefinitely.

There are big anomalies, sales below "wholesale" prices, which a big chain can afford, but small petrol stations, which are the real Bulgarian part of the business, cannot, says Ventsislav.

For the time being, he will not lay off employees, but has stopped bank card payments because of the fees.

Given these record low Russian oil prices, given almost 100 percent Russian oil, ... given low wages in Bulgaria, given low taxes in Bulgaria, prices here have caught up with some middle European countries that have higher standards. First of all, the state has to step in, Ventsislav says.

In Parliament, the opposition GERB presented an analysis of prices.

The Bulgarian refinery does not use Brent oil, but uses Urals oil. And if you look at the price of Urals oil after the war in Ukraine, Urals oil is down by 30%. If there is no increase in the price of oil, excise duty and VAT are the same, why for the past 6 months petrol and diesel jumped by BGN 1, explained Delyan Dobrev, MP from the GERB group.

The GERB members were outraged that the ruling party for the second week did not put on the Parliament's agenda the decision to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate fuel prices. And they asked a question to them.

Why do we buy cheap Russian oil, which Deputy Prime Minister Assen Vassilev is fighting for, and pay expensive American Brent. This difference of BGN 1 per litre, because that is the difference - BGN 1 per litre, someone, roughly speaking, "rips us off” and takes them into their own pocket, in the offshore companies, said Delyan Dobrev, MP from the GERB group.

"Democratic Bulgaria" accused GERB of not offering solutions.

With regard to fuel prices, today we heard only findings and analyses, but not a single solution, not a single specific proposal, said Martin Dimitrov, MP from the “Democratic Bulgaria” group.

And they proposed four measures:

We want a committee on Lukoil, which we proposed, but the opposition prevented this from happening as an extension of the existing committee on gas. We want a change of the state representative in Lukoil. We want the change of the Commission for Protection of Competition, said Martin Dimitrov, MP from the” Democratic Bulgaria” group.

The right-wing said they have a draft law ready, giving more competition in excise tax warehouses.