The civic platform Stand Up.BG has prepared a draft of the "Anti-speculation" Law, which proposes that the state receive real mechanisms for controlling the price crisis and protecting consumers.
This was stated by former Ombudsman Maya Manolova in "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov" on BNT. In her words, life is becoming more expensive and legislation should be adopted that would free the hands of institutions to impose sanctions and monitor unfair trade practices.
„That is why we wrote the "Anti-speculation" Law. The goal is measures to freeze prices, for marginal markups, to return prices to a previous period, to display prices as they were on January 1 in key sectors“, she explained. In addition, the platform is also preparing a mobile application with which citizens will be able to submit signals about unreasonably high prices “with one click of a button“.
What does the Anti-Speculation Law provide?
The project contains measures such as:
freezing prices in sensitive sectors (food, medicines, fuels, mobile services, bank fees);
ceilings on trade markups;
indicating prices as of January 1, 2025. for comparison and transparency;
prohibition of new bank fees and increases during the adaptation period;
control over fuels with a formula updated every 14 days;
extended powers of the CPC, CPA, NRA, CRC, BNB and other regulators.
Manolova pointed out that Bulgaria is “the only country in Europe that has not taken a single measure to control prices“. In contrast, in Croatia “the government has adopted six decisions to impose a price ceiling on basic food products plus a price ceiling“, she added.
“We have written this law for them“, Manolova emphasized, specifying that the text will be proposed to all parliamentary groups. “Because the price increase affects everyone – "the voters of all parties," she said.
According to her, institutions such as the National Revenue Agency, the Competition Commission and the Consumer Protection Commission, despite their desire, are currently operating with "weapons without cartridges," as they have no real authority to stop the avalanche of price increases.
“Prices are rising in levs. They will be converted, but who will stop traders from increasing prices in leva?“, Manolova asked. According to her, regulators can only impose sanctions if a price is converted incorrectly - for example, if 2 leva is recorded directly as 2 euros. But if the trader first increases the price in leva and then converts it correctly, the authorities have no mechanism to stop it.
During the conversation, Manolova also commented on the topic of the increase in the price of electricity. According to her, the new increase from July 1 will lead to a significant increase in bills:
„The regulatory period is from July to July and the price has always been determined once. From January 1, in the middle of the regulatory period, the price increased by 9%, and now - by 4.62% from July 1. That is, if we look at the annual increase, the percentages are at least 14%“, she said.
Manolova emphasized that the KEVR methodology misleads the public by calculating an average value that does not reflect the real burden on households. „I will take the bills to them in August so that they can see the bill from last year and this year - by how much the price has increased“, she added.