2024-02-21 07:13:06
The new structure and the necessary changes in laws will be ready by the end of the year, Minister Asen Vassilev hopes that they will pass without tension
The Ministry of Finance is starting work on creating a single revenue agency that will unite the National Revenue Agency and customs, Asen Vassilev’s department announced.
The reasons are that this way there will be a more efficient administration of the revenue. In the EU, there were similar agencies in Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Hungary. Single revenue authorities also operate in the US and UK.
Later, Vassilev himself stated that a special task force is beginning to examine the two revenue agencies because of their merger.
The minister argued the time for the start of the reform with the expected entry of Bulgaria into Schengen and by land from January 1 next year. This implies a serious reorganization in customs, so this is also the moment to merge the two agencies, Vasilev pointed out. according to him
within a month the working group will give details
what the new agency should look like
He emphasized that this is also going through a change in the legislation and it will not happen quickly, and the changes will be implemented during the planning of next year’s budget.
The minister announced that the current director of customs, Pavel Tonev, will become his adviser, so that he can work diligently on the restructuring together with representatives of the NRA. This is necessary in order to make a complete preparation such as concept and processes, to make it smooth and not affect the collectability. The casting was specified with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov. Petya Bankova, his previous deputy, has been appointed to Tonev’s place in customs.
The minister denied that the change of the customs chief was because of disagreement with the idea, as allegations have emerged, or because of poor performance. On the contrary – Vassilev reported that as of February 19
collection is going very well already
there is BGN 685 million more
of taxes, duties and insurance compared to last year.
Regarding the details of the restructuring, the finance minister indicated for now that general administrations will be optimized. Information systems are now connected. But tax and customs officers now worked in joint teams. I expect that by the end of the year we will be ready with the structure and legislative changes, I hope they will pass without tension, Vassilev announced.
The idea of the merger of the NRA and customs was not officially commented today by the DB and GERB – the non-coalition partners of the PP in the administration.
However, it received approval from the chairman of the budget committee in the parliament, Yordan Tsonev, who is from the DPS. Merger is an old and good idea, I support it as an expert, he stated. And he added that the previous two attempts to do so were made by him, but the lobbies stopped the implementation. The idea of the merger has been around since 1999 and belongs to the World Bank. “In 2005, we made the first attempt, but then we failed because of lobbyist interests that penetrated at all levels of the state,” explained Tsonev.
Rokada is also in the State Financial Inspection Agency (ADFI) – Ilka Dimova becomes director. The aim of the change is to optimize the work so that the inspections meet the best European practices.
Ilka Dimova has a master’s degree in international economic relations and has many years of managerial experience in leading financial institutions in the country. The former director of ADFI, Stefan Belchev, is returning to the system of the Ministry of Finance.
Four attempts so far, all unsuccessful
Four times so far, there has been an idea to merge the National Revenue Agency and customs into one mega-agency.
The recommendation for this was already at the beginning of the reforms in 1999 and came from the World Bank. The first attempt to implement it dates back to the time of Ivan Kostov’s office. However, the initial idea encountered a lot of resistance, including within the UDF itself, and was abandoned.
The second attempt was made in 2005, when the National Revenue Agency was created. At that time, the Minister of Finance was Plamen Oresharski, and the MP Yordan Tsonev proposed to create a national revenue agency based on the model developed by the World Bank. Again there is resistance, the BSP and the entire opposition are against it and the working group created then does not reach a concrete project.
In 2014, when Oresharski was already prime minister and Petar Chobanov was finance minister, the proposal again came from DPS. According to Chobanov, the idea of merging the National Revenue and Customs Agency is a serious proposal for long-term reform. The same year, but already in the government of Boyko Borisov, the then Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov supplemented the idea of a merger by moving the customs headquarters to Ruse. The unions are coming out with a declaration that this is another attempt by the masters of the backstage to eliminate the customs through an apparent merger. Protests followed in front of the finance ministry and the reform never happened.