In 2026, the amateur fishing ticket for one year will cost 50, not 25 leva, the director of the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture (IARA), Dr. Nikolay Georgiev, told BTA. According to him, the other fees of the Agency have also been updated.
Work on the new tariff for administrative fees and services of IARA has been going on for almost two years, Georgiev added. He stressed that the price of the amateur ticket, for example, has not been changed since 2006. The new IARA tariff provides for an increase in all fees by between 50 and 100 percent. The prices were discussed in the Ministry of Agriculture, received validation from the Ministry of Finance and the approval of the Council of Ministers, Georgiev pointed out. According to him, there was not a single objection in the public discussion of the new tariff – neither from industry organizations, nor from state institutions, or citizens.
He also pointed out that the most serious revenues in the budget are from amateur fishing tickets. “Currently, a kilogram of carp on the market costs an average of 10 leva, which means that if a fisherman catches a 2.5-kilogram fish once, then he uses a state resource for free for a whole year in practice,” Georgiev commented. And he emphasized that at the same time, the employees of IARA are expected to go out on the field regularly and to have high-performance vehicles, drones, body cameras, fast boats.
Georgiev expressed satisfaction that with the support of the state, all service vehicles of the Agency are now equipped with sound and light signals. Inspectors have the right to a special traffic regime on the republican road network, to use stop sticks like the police and to check cars when there are suspicions of unauthorized fishing, or transportation of fish or fishing gear. Inspectors also have the right to detain offenders, especially if they show aggression towards them, and to take them to the nearest regional police station, the director of IARA added.
Achieving these powers was a long process, but it is now completed, Georgiev pointed out. According to him, the equipment of the last vehicles of the Agency was completed at the end of November and all 40 branded vehicles have sound and light signals. The employees who will use a special traffic regime on the roads passed a training course at the academies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the country, Georgiev added. According to him, 150 people with inspector functions have been prepared.