Since the beginning of the year, the NRA has carried out over 1,000 inspections, and a total of 1,706, including those carried out at the end of last year, NOVA reported.
“The fines are about 10% of the inspections, which is a good achievement for us. The process of collecting documents and assessing whether the increases are justified is still underway“.
This was stated in the studio of “Sabùdù se” by the executive director of the NRA, Hristo Markov.
And he added: "We rely on prevention. The goal is not to fill the budget with fines, but to stop speculative price increases. We are not a repressive body", he emphasized.
According to the latest data, the imposed sanctions amount to about 200,000 leva. "There is no maximum fine imposed. In most cases, these are violations of 6-10 stotinki. There are also online ads with incorrect currency conversion - there the sanctions will be more serious, even when it is claimed that it is a technical error", said Markov.
"There are certain inconveniences when shopping with euros - especially in small shops. Because they say that it is more difficult to obtain the new currency. But I assume that from February 1st these inconveniences will disappear. In some more remote areas, only levs are still used, but this will gradually change," he commented on the parallel use of lev and euro by the end of January in our country.
And he recalled that a detailed and quite good analysis was made by BNB experts together with the business community. "It shows that the best option is for the period for parallel use of lev and euro to be one month. In many other countries, this period was even shorter - about 14-15 days," he specified.
Markov also commented on a signal to NOVA, according to which a grave, which before the New Year cost 125 leva, in 2026 will already cost 125 euros. When asked if this is a classic example of people's greatest fear - that everything will happen "in twos" - he emphasized: "It turns out that it is possible for the state, but not for business. It is not so".
And he explained that there were such decisions adopted back in June and July of last year. "In some municipalities, decisions were made then to raise prices and fees, including for transport and services. We are actively working with the regional governors and will check the specific case with the burial grounds", Markov assured.
During the so-called "buffer period", when control was not so intense, the question arises whether some institutions and traders did not use the moment to raise prices unreasonably. "We stop such practices where we detect them. There was such a case with public transport in Pleven – "we intervened and things were smoothed out," he gave an example.
Markov emphasized that no "glaring violations" were reported, which he attributed to the good information campaign that was carried out in the months leading up to the introduction of the euro. "Currently, we even expect lists of suppliers from the Competition Protection Commission, because small stores in more remote areas are highly dependent on them. If the supplier raises the price, the retailer has nothing to do", he explained.
According to him, the situation is different with large retail chains, which have greater market power. He singled out parking prices as a more serious problem. "It is striking that in many places the prices of parking spaces have been inflated. We checked over 80 parking lots. In some cases, there was a direct increase from 2 leva to 2 euros. There was also a striking case in Varna with 14 different signals for the same parking lot“, the head of the NRA pointed out.
About 70% of the over 1,000 signals received by the NRA since the beginning of the year fall within the competence of the revenue agency, while the rest concern the Consumer Protection Commission, the Financial Supervision Commission and the CPC. The signals are processed jointly. “Most often, people signal about food products. However, in most cases it turns out that there are no significant violations. There were many promotions - for example, with bread or white goods. Some of the signals are due to the fact that promotional prices have expired“, explained Markov.
According to him, real violations are more often found in the service sector. “In our opinion, it is in services that there is a greater risk of unjustified price increases - hairdressing services, fitness centers, parking lots. "We carried out 200 inspections of hairdressing salons after the New Year, but on the day of the inspections, 77 of them were closed. They were probably warned - I admit that this was our mistake," Markov reported.
And he emphasized again: “Our goal is not to fill the budget with fines, but to stop speculative price increases. After our inspections, there were cases in which traders voluntarily returned the old prices. In most cases, it is a matter of rounding up by a few euro cents - 6, 7 or 10. In the case of systematic violations, however, the sanctions can reach 200,000 leva“, he recalled.
Regarding proving an unjustified price increase, Markov explained that the process is complex and includes an analysis of documents and costs. “We compare prices with last year and check whether there are real costs - such as an increase in the minimum wage, rents or other factors. If the price increase is justified, it is not a violation“, he stated.