At a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber asked for clarity on the tax status of groups and organizations

2023-11-03 18:10:28

Lending to associations of producers from BBR and creation of a Guarantee Fund were the other topics in the conversation with Deputy Minister Alexander Yotsev

“Unification of agricultural producers in recognized groups and organizations is one of the main priorities for the team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The aspiration is to implement policies and instruments to encourage all forms of cooperation without direct influence, because our understanding is that association is a voluntary and conscious process.” This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Alexander Yotsev during a meeting with representatives of Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber in the Ministry of Health. “Using the already established tools to support producer groups and organizations, farmers will be able to carry out much better marketing by forming common product lots with common, minimized sorting, packaging and transport costs, ensuring a competitive advantage in the market . We believe that this is an irreversible process and the successful future of Bulgarian farmers in the common European market”, added the deputy minister.

“It is important to motivate our colleagues from the branch to recognize the benefits of unification and cooperation,” said Tsvetan Tsekov from the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber. He emphasized that the support of the institutions for the unification of agricultural producers is very important. The industry emphasized the importance of national and European priorities in agriculture regarding the support of producer groups and organizations and fiscal policies to be in sync.

In connection with the implementation of state control over fiscal discipline, the need to prepare detailed methodological guidelines regarding the tax status of producer organizations and their members recognized by the Minister of Agriculture and Food was discussed with representatives of the National Revenue Agency. The representatives of the NRA undertook to hold a separate meeting in an extended format, to which representatives of the Ministry of Finance would also be invited, where specific steps to develop such a methodology would be discussed.

A highlight of the discussion, in which representatives of the Bulgarian Development Bank also took part, was the discussion of the possibilities of providing short-term and long-term preferential lending to groups and organizations of producers and their provision.

Special attention was paid to exploring the possibility of funds from the risk management tool in the Strategic Plan for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas being directed to a mechanism to support the creation of a guarantee fund to guarantee credit lines provided to producer organizations .

The executive director of BAK Svetlana Boyanova stated that it is necessary to clearly define the scope and field of application of the risk management tool in the new program period, and this requires the support and approval of all interested institutions.

In connection with the implementation of the already approved financial instruments, Simeon Karakolev, a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber, expressed satisfaction with the efforts to quickly develop and notify the aid measure for the losses caused by the crisis in Ukraine, as well as to increase the amount and expand the scope of the aid and to producer organizations. At the meeting, the possibilities of assistance with national funds were also discussed.