site.btaParliamentary Budget Committee Approves on First Reading Revisions Targeting Unjustified Price Spikes ahead of Euro's Adoption

The parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee Tuesday adopted on first reading a bill to amend and supplement the Introduction of the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria Act, tabled by the Council of Ministers on Monday. The proposed legislative changes stipulate that retailers in Bulgaria may not raise the prices of goods or services, unless there are objective economic factors to do so, until the end of the next financial year 2026. Retailers who do not comply with these requirements may face financial penalties, which will depend on their turnover for the previous financial year.

The bill was presented to Budget and Finance Committee by Deputy Finance Minister Metodi Metodiev.

The amendments stipulate that the period of dual pricing of goods and services in BGN and EUR will start on August 8, 2025, and end on December 31, 2026. The requirement not to increase prices unreasonably will apply during this period as well.

The bill's reasoning reads that the current legislation is problematic in that the ban on unreasonable price increases covers only the one-month period of both currencies being in circulation, not the longer period of dual price marking.

The proposed amendments expand the definition of objective economic factors. According to the amendments, these are factors related to the production, circulation and sale of goods and services that are beyond the trader's control, including increases in the prices of raw materials and supplies, increases in the prices of electricity and natural gas, increases in fuel prices, increases in the minimum wage, increases in taxes, force majeure circumstances.

In case legal entities and sole traders allow speculative price increases, they face a penalty of 0.5% of the turnover for the previous financial year. In case of repeated violation face a penalty of 1% of the turnover for the previous financial year, the bill provides.

The powers of the Commission for Consumer Protection and the National Revenue Agency are also expanded. The two organizations will have the right to request from any natural or legal person, within deadlines set by them, any information that is relevant to the checks being carried out, including the prices for a period determined by the official, the starting date (no earlier than January 1, 2024), the method of pricing, delivery and production prices, each of the components included in the final selling price of the goods or service.

The amendment specify how prices should be displayed in shops - the price in EUR and BGN should be displayed with letters of the same size, font, and colour.

The Council of Ministers may lay down rules and conditions introducing temporary measures to counteract excessive price increases for goods and services, the draft law further says.

According to Martin Dimitrov MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), that provision is a blank check for the Government to do whatever it wants without a decision of the National Assembly and should not be allowed.

Yordan Tsonev MP of MRF - New Beginning expressed the opinion that the market has already proven it cannot self-regulate, which is why administrative measures are needed for prevention. Traders are left the opportunity to prove as grounded the pricing of their goods and services to control bodies.

Krassimir Manov MP of MECh said that through this bill, the Government throws market economy in the trash can and called for the draft amendments to the be rejected.

Tsoncho Ganev of Vazrazhdane said that the Government will suffocate small businesses through these measures, which are to the benefit of large retail chains capable of complying with the requirements until the end of 2026.