The state treasury has lost nearly 580 million leva from undeclared fuels in 2024. This is shown by a study by the Center for the Study of Democracy, commissioned by the Bulgarian Oil and Gas Association. This means that 12% of fuels are without paid taxes and excise duties. For comparison, in Serbia this percentage is 5 percent, reports BNT.
The total volume of undeclared fuel consumed is 624 million liters, according to data from the study, which includes over 7 million and 800 thousand vehicles in the country. The alleged main sources of unregistered fuel are fuel coming from duty-free gas stations in Turkey, subsidized agricultural fuel and a small Bulgarian refinery.
Svetoslav Benchev, president of the Bulgarian Oil and Gas Association: "A very important point in this analysis is that it is found that we have problems along the entire chain – from production to distribution, which is normal – when we have fuel circulating, it must come from somewhere."
Tihomir Bezlov, head of expert at the Center for the Study of Democracy: "For this to happen, you need gas stations that make large turnovers and evade, there is also data on how they evade the electronic fiscal memory systems of the National Revenue Agency, which work in real time."
Among the alleged channels for the distribution of unregistered fuel are also departmental sites in construction and transport companies.
The undeclared but consumed fuel for last year is nearly 12%. The negative fact is that the financial damage to the state treasury has remained a sustainable trend over the last 2-3 years.
Financial losses are visible year after year. Among the proposals to reduce undeclared fuel are additional measures to control the software of electronic fiscal memory systems.
Tihomir Bezlov, head of the expert at the Center for the Study of Democracy: "We have an extremely good tool that is relevant – the toll system. It is possible to analyze in detail how the tankers move, because you don't carry them like cigarettes in the trunks of cars."
Another measure is the limitation of the possibilities for „production“ and sale on the retail market in large volumes.