Bulgaria: EU member States Must Impose Excise Duty on Tobacco Products Not Less That 90% per 1,000 Pieces As of 2018

Source from:  Focus English News 11/12/2014

"As of January 1, 2018 the EU member states will have to impose an excise duty on tobacco products not less than 90% per 1,000 pieces," Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov said at a press conference after the extraordinary sitting of the Council of Ministers, a reporter of FOCUS News Agency announced.

"The Council of Ministers adopted and will submit to the National Assembly amendment bills to the VAT Act as well as to the 2014 State Budget Act," Goranov added.

With regard to the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act the amendments mainly related to addendum to the Act for maximum rates of excise duty on tobacco. "As of January 1, 2018 the EU member states will have to impose an excise duty on tobacco not less that 90% per thousand cigarettes. We suggest this measure to be realized in three stages in Bulgaria – on January 1, 2016, on January 1, 2017 and on January 1, 2018," the Minister stated.

"We do not include 2015 because of the existing problem of increasing smuggling, and we will pay efforts to improve the work of the revenue administrations and reducing smuggling. I don’t it is appropriate to make this change before tackling smuggling," Vladislav Goranov stated.

Regarding tax acts one of the groups of amendments is related with the necessity to introduce in the state tax legislation certain improvement from the European tax legislation. "We envisage amendment to the VAT Act which provide for regime regulation of the place of supply in the telecommunications services and radio and television broadcasting, as well as electronic services. It is envisaged that these services be taxed by the state where the provider has his permanent address or residence." he said further. Enditem