Hi Baldur,
Do you know how much this vat increase to 22% will put on to cigs,beer,meals ect. I suppose we should not complain as value for money is still good for todays market, 45/46p to £1.

Regards,
Cornish lad.

cornish lad wrote:

Do you know how much this vat increase to 22% will put on to cigs,beer,meals ect. I suppose we should not complain as value for money is still good for todays market, 45/46p to £1.

The VAT increase hasn't been ratified yet, it's apparently being discussed today.

For tourists, the effects would be fairly minimal, for Bulgarians (on their already limited incomes) it would be quite significant.

As far as cigarettes are concerned, the increases in excise, which have already been ratified by the Bulgarian Government, since early 2010, will far outweigh any VAT increase - see Novinite report 1st January 2010,

No excise increase was applied to alcohol.

Today's report from Novinite suggests that the Bulgarian Government has dropped plans for the proposed 2% increase in VAT.

A Focus report suggests that this may only be a postponement of the increase, pending assessment of revenue targets actually achieved.