Rules on homemade rakia should be dropped from the excise law changes, DPS MP Atidzhe Alieva-Veli says. She filed a formal objection at today's public hearing on the amendments, the party's press office said.

She says people are angry the state is going after homemade rakia while they struggle with high prices for fuel, goods and services.

"Yesterday a lot of people got in touch with me, and they all said the same thing: this is too much," Alieva-Veli said. People are now asking what will be banned or fined next — "maybe pickled cabbage," she added.

If the problem is illegal trade, checks should target that trade, and penalties should hit the people who break the law, the MP said. She added that a smuggler and someone who shares homemade rakia with a friend or relative should not be treated the same way.

A day earlier, deputy prime minister and finance minister Galab Donev said penalties will apply only to homemade rakia makers who sell it, not to people who make it for their own use. No homemade rakia maker will be fined, he said.

Donev also said rakia from so-called village stills carries a lower excise rate, which rules out using it for trade.