February 2021 / Bulgaria

February 19 2021

Bulgaria – Greece Gas Interconnector Construction in Progress

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov on Thursday expected the progress of construction of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria. "This is a geostrategic project for both Bulgaria and the entire region," the PM said, quoted by the Government Information Service. He admitted that the pandemic had slowed it down a bit but, "as agreed with our Greek partners, it must be put into commercial operation this year".

Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova said that the pipe manufacture and delivery contract has been performed. So far, 187 km of pipes have been delivered in both countries, the topsoil has been stripped off on over 170 km of the pipeline route in Bulgaria, more than 128 km of the pipes delivered are on site, and over 101 km have been welded. Work continues on digging the trench, laying the pipes and backfilling. The gas pipeline is 182 km long, of which 151 km in Bulgaria and 31 km in Greece, with a design capacity of up to 3 billion cu m/year, which may be increased to 5 billion cu m/year if there is market demand. It runs from Komotini (Northeastern Greece) via Kurdjali, Haskovo and Dimitrovgrad to Stara Zagora (Southeastern Bulgaria).

Novinite

February 15 2021

Bulgaria Launches Consultation on New VAT Rules for E-Commerce

On 11 February 2021, the Ministry of Finance published a proposal amending the regulations for application of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act. The proposal, which is opened for public consultation, consists of the following:

  • introduction of details of the application of the new EU VAT rules for e-commerce coming into force in 2021; and
  • implementation of Council Directive (EU) 2020/1756 of 20 November 2020 amending Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax as regards the identification of taxable persons in Northern Ireland.

The full text of the public consultation, issued on 11 February 2021, is available here (in Bulgarian only).

The public consultation will run until 13 March 2021. Further developments will be reported when they occur.