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VAT on beer, wine sales in restaurants temporarily lowered to 9%

Photo: Ani Petrova, BNR

VAT is reduced from 20 to 9% for wine and beer sales in restaurants, commissions of tour operators and charter bus services, gyms and sports facilities. This was voted at second reading in parliament today with the votes of GERB, United Patriots, Volya political party and one independent MP.
The lowered VAT tax will be in effect from August 1, 2020 till December 31, 2021. Its goal is to reduce the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

"Tens of thousands of Bulgarian companies have gone bankrupt, unemployment is increasing by tens of thousands, and we are reducing VAT on wine and beer", retorted Rumen Gechev from the BSP. "It is humiliating to bring this measure down to this level. It is not a matter of drowning in grief with alcohol, but of supporting the most affected industries," said one of the submitters of the amendments, Valeri Simeonov from the NFSB, BTA reported.



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