Bulgarian companies suffer losses because of tightened controls at land borders

Bulgarian companies suffer significant losses because of enhanced checks at land borders, the business said on January 11. The reason for the delay of cargoes at the moment are the requirements of Austria because of Bulgaria's entry into Schengen. However, the Customs Agency reported that the checks are already yielding results and large quantities of illegal excise goods have been detected. Meanwhile, Billa company has come out with a position that it doubts that the inspections of the tax authorities in its stores are related to the fact that the company is Austrian.

Finance Minister: Inspections in "Billa" and OMV are not directed against the Austrian business, there are inspections in over 500 companies

Serious queues of trucks continue to be formed at the Danube Bridge at Vidin because of the new requirements for inspection of cargo from and to Austria. The situation was complicated after a protest by Romanian farmers who closed the bridge.

The number of trucks travelling though the country increased by another 3% last year, the agency reported.

Since the beginning of the year, all cargo to and from Austria has been subject to the full range of checks. Yesterday, Finance Minister, Assen Vassilev, warned that such queues would persist until Bulgaria's entry into Schengen (by land) because of a lack of sufficient inspection equipment.

"The amount of X-ray scanners has been increased, we have money in the budget to get more X-ray scanners, but only at the external borders, that is, at Kaptain Andreevo out of 10 lanes for trucks we have X-ray scanners at only two. We are not going to invest in additional equipment at the internal European borders, so delays can be expected there," said Assen Vassilev, Minister of Finance.

In the meantime, business is already making serious losses.

"One truck waiting at the Danube Bridge loses 200 euros, the total annual loss is at least 250 million, so it is a very serious amount. Apart from that, the waiting time and the delays lead to disruptions and a bad reputation for Bulgarian business," said Shteryo Nozarov, an economic adviser at the BIA.

There will be no benefit for the economy from the first step of entering Schengen by sea and air.

"From the business point of view, over 90% of the shipments are by land transport, less than 10% about 7-8% are by sea and air, so the business is mainly interested in shipments by land," explained Shteryo Nozharov, economic advisor at BIA.

Meanwhile, the Austrian company Billa commented on the mass inspections of the company's stores by the tax authorities that started yesterday.

REWE Group's position:

"...BILLA Bulgaria has always strictly adhered to the applicable Bulgarian and European legislation in all areas of its activities. The company is one of the largest investors in the Bulgarian regions, one of the largest employers in the country and has successfully stimulated the development of Bulgarian production, partnering with more than 700 Bulgarian suppliers."

The company doubts that the inspections are related to the fact that the company is Austrian.

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