GERB-SDS has tabled a bill in parliament to cut the excise tax on petrol and diesel for a limited time and to lower VAT on fuel, with a 9% rate also under discussion. MP Krasimir Terziev announced this today in a statement on behalf of the group, read in the National Assembly.
The bill did not reach the floor because no committee has given an opinion on it yet and the 15-day period set by parliament's rules has not expired.
The first step is for Bulgaria to ask the EU for permission to set excise rates on petrol and diesel below the EU minimum for a limited time, as Croatia did. Under the bill, the finance minister must send a reasoned request to the European Commission through the Council of Ministers within 7 days.
The second step is to find out whether VAT on motor fuel can be cut for a limited time, including to 9%. The third is permanent public oversight to check that the relief really reaches the buyer.
The bill's estimates say that if the lower excise and 9% VAT are applied together, filling a 50-litre tank would cost about €20–21 less. That holds only if the whole cut is passed on in the final price. "Or put another way, the pump price would fall by 40 euro cents a litre," Terziev said.
He said the proposal is not a slogan and does not promise that the state will set the price at every petrol station with one signature. Terziev believes EU law is not broken, because Bulgaria is formally asking the European Commission for its position and will act only if the law allows it.
The measures are temporary, limited and reversible, and would apply only when prices come under extreme pressure, the MP said. The group does not want permanent tax relief. Terziev asked why Bulgaria should not ask for the same, when another EU country can ask for and get a temporary exemption from the excise rules.
Terziev urged speed: "Pump prices do not wait for parliament's rules. Inflation does not wait for a committee, and people's bills do not wait 15 days." He said that while parliament counts procedural days, people count the money left after each fill-up, and businesses cannot stop their costs. The period set by the rules should not mean 15 days of doing nothing, he said.
GERB-SDS called on the committees to look at the bill as fast as they can, and on the government to act. The group will push for the texts to go through the committees and, once the deadlines pass, reach the floor, where each MP will vote openly.