2024-09-18 08:58:22
Within only about 40 minutes for debates and at the same time in the first and second reading, the National Assembly voted changes to the Law on Local Taxes and Fees, according to which the introduction of the new way of calculating the household garbage fee – according to the amount, is postponed by one year and will not be introduced from 1 January 2025.
During the debates, all the main parliamentary forces blamed each other for the next, seventh, postponement of the introduction of the new criteria, but in the end it was adopted almost unanimously – with only 3 votes “against” by people’s representatives from PP-DB. The proposal for the amendment was made by Nikolay Nankov, Temenuzka Petkova and Alexander Nenkov from GERB-SDS and was supported by the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria.
“For 26 years, the Bulgarian municipalities have been preparing for something that it is clear that they will not do, because it will raise the fee up to 10 times and even more in some municipalities,” said Borislav Gutsanov from BSP. “This is the 7th time that this change has been cancelled, but due to weak power, it cannot be done this time either. Hopefully, at least from January 1, 2026, it will happen, and let’s think about a real decentralization of local government. We cannot continue to we keep the municipalities completely dependent on the government, regardless of who that government is,” he said.
Georgi Svilenski reiterated that the price increase will be much more than 10 times. “Now the ratio is 70 to 30 in favor of individuals at the expense of business. If it enters into force on January 1, 2026, there are enough right-wing parties to protect business, there is no need for Mr. Gutsanov to protect it. 18 MPs you will be seen as a number if you defend this thing,” Guchanov Svilensky said as a retort.
According to Dimo Drenchev from “Vazrazhdane”, if Bulgaria does not introduce the “polluter pays” principle, this will stimulate people’s misconceptions. “And this for the 15-fold increase in the fee is a scam – if 30 people live at one address, it can be increased by that much, but where single elderly people live, it will not be raised that much,” he said.