Twenty business organizations are urging the National Assembly to reject the draft Law on measures to control the prices of essential goods and services, adopted on first reading by the Parliament, and all similar initiatives for administrative control over prices and markups. They warn that if this does not happen, such actions will have direct, measurable, and long-term consequences for the investment environment, competitiveness, and economic stability of Bulgaria. This becomes known from a position of organizations from trade, production, the financial sector, fuels, pharmacy, and services, addressed to the Parliament, with a copy to the caretaker government, received today at BTA.
The organizations state that the proposed bill represents a gross, systematic, and disproportionate interference in free pricing and market mechanisms, which is not economically justified, not legally necessary, and creates real and significant risks for the functioning of the market at an extremely sensitive and critical moment for the Bulgarian economy – the introduction of the euro.
The repressive regulations on prices and markups, proposed by the organizations, represent an extraordinary administrative burden, a serious operational and legal risk for companies, and a direct factor for the destabilization of supply chains, both at the national and regional level. The organizations point out that such an approach does not exist as an established or acceptable practice in the countries that have already switched to the euro and is in open contradiction with the principles of predictability, legal certainty, and institutional consistency, which should accompany this process.
According to the organizations, the proposed law creates a danger of: withdrawing products from the market and expanding the grey sector; limiting supply and the emergence of deficits; shrinking Bulgarian production and increasing unemployment; blocking and postponing investment decisions; weakening the purchasing power of consumers and shrinking domestic consumption.
The position emphasizes that the Consumer Protection Commission, the Competition Protection Commission, the National Revenue Agency, and the other competent authorities have the full range of powers, which, if necessary, can and should be strictly applied within the framework of the current legislation, including the Law on the introduction of the euro in the Republic of Bulgaria. According to the organizations, the introduction of a new, parallel control regime duplicates existing functions, creates legal uncertainty, and opens a wide field for contradictory interpretations, selective application, and administrative arbitrariness.
The position is signed by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, BESCO - Bulgarian Entrepreneurial Association, Alliance of the Technological Industry, Association of Banks in Bulgaria, Association of Industrial Pig Farming, Association of Meat Processors in Bulgaria, Association of Producers of Soft Drinks in Bulgaria, Association of Fish Products Producers BG FISH, Association of Pig Farmers in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Association of Wholesalers and Retailers of Medicines, Bulgarian Petroleum and Gas Association, National Branch Union of Bakers and Confectioners, National Wine Chamber, Association "Foods and Drinks Bulgaria", Modern Trade Association, Association of Producers of Vegetable Oils and Processors of Oil Products in Bulgaria, Spirits Bulgaria – Association of Producers, Importers and Traders of Spirits in Bulgaria, Union of Brewers in Bulgaria, Union of Processors of Fruits and Vegetables, Union of Poultry Farmers in Bulgaria.
Temporarily setting maximum markups on essential goods and services during the period of introducing the euro in our country is provided for by the draft Law on measures to control the prices of essential goods and services, adopted last week on first reading by the Parliament. The proposers are Nina Dimitrova from "BSP-United Left" and a group of parliamentarians from different parliamentary groups.