Finance Minister Galab Donev explained "some misunderstood proposals" included in the proposed changes to the Excise and Tax Warehouses Act, informs novini.bg.
Today I have been having fun all day watching the meme depicting me as a control body that peers through people's windows and stalks them whether they drink homemade rakia or not. This is extremely funny to me. I will not be a control body for ordinary people who brew homemade brandy for personal and family use, Galab Donev told journalists.
And he added: "But I will be a control body for those who abuse the trade in homemade brandy. This homemade brandy is produced under a special regime, at reduced excise rates and is solely and exclusively for personal use by people who have vineyards and other fruits".
50% of the brandy produced in Bulgaria is produced in distilleries for home use - village stills. Part of this brandy enters commercial establishments. Brandy produced under these conditions cannot be kept in establishments with economic and commercial purposes. It cannot be offered for consumption in restaurants, hotels, guest houses. There are cases that such brandy is offered in car service stations, hair salons. This is an extreme violation of the law, the Finance Minister also pointed out.
Such rakia, which is produced under unclear conditions, with unclear qualities, with a high content of methyl alcohol - leads to a threat to people's lives and health, he also noted. "There are many cases in which many have damaged their health, even lost their lives - after using such rakia. What is written in Article 38, paragraph 1 and paragraph 2, is precisely the ban on rakia produced in this way in commercial establishments. I am surprised that politicians do not know how to read regulatory acts. Almost everyone expressed the opposite thesis to what we are proposing," Minister Donev also said.
Minister Donev noted that since the beginning of the year, the "Customs" Agency has seized 15,000 liters of homemade rakia, which has been offered in establishments since the beginning of the year. And he explained that the control will be carried out by the "Customs" Agency, as before.