Agricultural produce entering Bulgaria will be subject to enhanced checks by the National Revenue Agency (NRA), including scrutiny of invoices and the actual value of transactions, Agriculture and Food Minister Plamen Abrovski and NRA Executive Director Boris Mihaylov agreed at a meeting, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Ministers Yanislav Yanchev and Krum Nedelkov, as well as NRA Deputy Executive Director Zoya Gabrovska and agency representatives.
Abrovski said producers had reported cases in which the price shown on an invoice in the country where the produce was purchased differed from the value declared when the goods entered Bulgaria. He cited the example of grape imports from Greece, where, according to the information provided, the produce was purchased at a significantly lower price and subsequently declared at a higher value.
“This needs to be checked. We want to know what is actually happening on the market and tighten control. Our aim is to be in a position to respond as early as the start of the next season, with the first imports in March,” he said.
Mihaylov said control on shipments of goods posing a high fiscal risk had been stepped up, and not only near Bulgaria’s border with Greece. The NRA is already carrying out enhanced inspections of freight vehicles, including small vans.
“When inspecting imports from EU member states, the NRA checks tax documentation, including invoices, documents accompanying the goods and other relevant paperwork. Where necessary, confirmation will also be requested from the tax administration of the respective country,” he said. Mihaylov noted that Bulgaria’s revenue agency works well with its Greek counterparts and regularly exchanges tax information with them.
The meeting also discussed the possibility of requiring businesses operated by registered agricultural producers to use fiscal devices. This would apply in cases where individuals registered as agricultural producers engage in commercial activities, with the aim of preventing agricultural-producer registration from being used to conceal commercial transactions. Producers will still be able to sell their own produce directly from the field without a cash register.
The Agriculture and Food Ministry will also provide the NRA with information on registered agricultural producers, including details of the areas they have declared and the subsidies they have received, the ministry said. Cases involving registered producers for whom no declared agricultural land can be identified will also be analyzed, particularly where there are suspicions that they are traders registered as agricultural producers in order to circumvent the requirement to record their sales through a cash register.
