Bulgarias capital Sofia was losing a lot of revenue because of the low fees it was charging on the trade in alcohol and cigarettes in restaurants and entertainment establishments, Sega daily said on October 22, quoting its own investigation.
Fees paid by traders in Sofia were, in some cases, several times lower than those paid by their colleagues in other large Bulgarian cities, like Varna, Plovdiv and Bourgas.
Restaurants and bars in Sofia were paying 200 leva for a years permit to sell liquor. The city authorities did not find it necessary to make a distinction between different categories of establishments and were levying the same fee everywhere, Sega said. The approach in other big cities was the opposite. Five-star restaurants in Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Varna and Bourgas had to pay 5000 leva a year for obtaining a permit to sell alcohol. The fee was 3500-4000 leva for four-star and 1500 leva for three-star establishments. In Varna, 200 leva were paid only by small coffee shops that were as far away as possible from the city centre. The minimum for Plovdiv and Blagoevgrad was 300 leva.
Sofia Municipality had not found it necessary to levy a special fee on the sale of tobacco products, mainly cigarettes, in bars and restaurants. A 200 leva annual fee applies for the matter, regardless of the size or the category of the place. Meanwhile, in Bourgas and Plovdiv the fee varied from 2000 to 150 leva depending on the category of the establishment, and in Varna it was between 1500 and 200 leva, based on the categorisation criterion, Sega said.
