The National Revenue Agency (NRA) has conducted over 820 inspections in retail facilities selling automotive fuels and lubricants in the past month.
Additional data has been requested from 475 individuals to justify the price increases, announced the Executive Director of the NRA, Milena Krastanova. There are 3686 registered petrol stations in the country, operated by 2023 individuals. The inspections cover both large chains and single-owned facilities.
Parallel inspections are being carried out on the ten largest petrol station chains, as well as another 419 smaller facilities. Preliminary data show that the gross margin – the difference between the purchase and selling price – is generally decreasing.
“In March 2026, a decrease in the gross margin in the sale of fuels was observed, on average by 0.9 percentage points, in both large and small facilities. The largest decrease in the gross margin is recorded for the sale of diesel – 1.6 percentage points, while gasoline A95 has a minimal increase of 0.05 percentage points. The sale of propane-butane has a growth of 3.6 percentage points,” Krastanova said. In order to determine whether there is a rise in the operating margin, an accounting closure will be needed, which usually happens a month after the current one.
The facilities where an increase in the margin was found for all three types of fuel are 48, and in 88 facilities the increase is only for diesel and gasoline.
“The observations from the colleagues' inspections are that predominantly petrol stations increase the price for only one type of fuel and decrease their margins for the other types of fuel, in order to cover their differences,” said the Executive Director of the NRA.
“We will draw up acts for establishing violations in the implementation of the Law on the Introduction of the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria for traders, where we have established an unjustified increase in prices,” she said. In order to prove a violation of the law, all provided documents proving whether there is a justified or unjustified increase in prices must be examined.
The data show that in March the quantities of fuel sold increased by 23.5 percent year-on-year to 353 million liters. The strongest growth is in diesel – 25.2 percent, followed by gasoline A95 – 23.6 percent, and propane-butane – 17.9 percent.
In the first 14 days of April compared to the last 14 days of March, a decrease in diesel sales of 10 percent is recorded, with an increase in gasoline of 6.9 percent and propane-butane of 1.8 percent. The overall decrease in the quantities sold is around 5 percent.
As of April 14, the price of gasoline A95 is 1.48 euros per liter, and diesel – 1.77 euros per liter. Compared to February 28, gasoline has increased by 19.9 percent, and diesel – by 38.8 percent.
VAT revenues on fuel sales in March reached 86.8 million euros, which is an increase of 23.9 percent year-on-year and 44.3 percent compared to February.
For the first quarter of 2026, VAT revenues amounted to 208.9 million euros, which is 9.5 million euros more, or a growth of 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year.