site.btaGrain Producers Call Off Protest Rally Planned for April 3

Sofia, April 2 (BTA) - Chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers Kostadin Kostadinov said, emerging from a meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov Monday, that the protest rally of grain producers planned to be held on April 3 is called off. The protest rally had been planned in connection with a demand of grain producers to be excluded from the scope of a bill on administrative regulation of economic activities related to petrol and products of petrol origin.

Agriculture Minister Roumen Porozhanov recalled that the tension in the sector was triggered by the fact that the bill treats farmers as merchants and burdens them with the implementation of numerous regulations. Porozhanov said that legal options will be sought so that farmers are treated as users.

Chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Oversight of Revenue Agencies, the Fight against the Grey Economy and Illegal Trade, and sponsor of the bill, Emil Dimitrov said that, asked by Borissov, he has undertaken whereby proposals for amending the bill are summarized and submitted between the first- and second-reading debates.

Dimitrov said Borissov pledged that GERB will support the bill which is expected to enter force next year. Farmers are not going to have any administrative or financial burdens. Farmers registered as such at the moment will not have to comply with new provisions and will obtain the relevant certificates ex officio and at no charge.

Eased regulations will be applied for not yet registered farmers about how to position their fuel reservoirs by type, volume and location. The control will be exercised without level-measuring devices, Dimitrov said.

Dimitrov also said that the representatives of the sector unanimously declared that they did not intend to trade in fuels and do not want to be treated as merchants. Borissov agreed with this too, Dimitrov said, adding that no one objected to sanctioning illegal filling stations and fuel reservoirs.