Today, at 11:00 AM in the building of the Council of Ministers, a briefing of the Coordination Center for the Euro Mechanism will be held, the government press office announced.
During the report last week, Vladimir Ivanov, Chairman of the State Commission on Commodity Exchanges and Markets and of the Coordination Center for the Euro Mechanism, stated that returning change in leva when euros are available is absolutely unacceptable by law. He called the practice of traders returning change in leva when they have euro cash “extremely unpleasant“ and defined it as “amateurism on the part of certain traders.“ Ivanov added that both citizens and traders should obtain the necessary amounts of euro banknotes and euro coins without waiting for the last moment, as all conditions for exchanging leva for euros are provided.
The sanctions for refusal to return change in euros are between 600 and 7000 BGN, said Alexander Kolyachev, acting Chairman of the Commission for Consumer Protection (CPC). According to him, it is expected that in the next 15–18 days all traders will show more goodwill and comply with the law. It clearly states that the change should be returned in euros, and only in the event of insufficient cash is it permissible to be in leva. Upon establishing violations, the law provides for a sanction regime. Kolyachev added that the CPC already has quite a few ongoing proceedings, mainly based on complaints and signals from citizens.
Scratched euro banknotes are not compensated but retained, which is why we advise traders not to accept such banknotes. This was stated by the chief cashier of the Bulgarian National Bank, Stefan Tsvetkov.
Over a hundred duty bank branches are open, working on Saturdays for the exchange of leva into euros. This was announced by James Yolovksi, Secretary General of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria. He added that a full list of bank branches that work on Saturdays can be found on the website of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria, as well as on the websites of the banks themselves.