site.bta Hoteliers: 70% of Hotels in Bansko Ski Resort Do not Issue Receipts

Hoteliers: 70% of  Hotels in Bansko Ski Resort  Do not Issue Receipts

Sofia, October 20 (BTA) - Seventy per cent of hotels in the Bansko ski resort, mostly the taverns, do not issue receipts and do not register all of their tourists, said here on Tuesday a hotel and restaurant owner, Borislav Malinov, during a discussion, organized jointly by the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB) and Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova. The forum is part of a national campaign to take business from the gray economy and bring it to light.

Representatives from the tourism sector demanded patents for small family-owned hotels, restaurants and taverns - an idea which Angelkova supported. Another proposal is to reduce VAT at ski resorts from 20 to nine per cent for ski-related services. This would allow businesses to reinvest, while the reinvestments could be made mandatory by a law.

Over 30 per cent of Bulgaria's economy is in the gray sector and this percentage is much higher for certain economic sectors, with the tourism sector being one of the problematic ones, said KRIB President Kiril Domouschiev.

Minister Angelkova recalled that the ordinance for a universal tourist information system and linking hotel registries with the National Revenue Agency, the Interior Ministry and Municipalities will help bring the sector to light.

Domouschiev described the tourism sector's dissociation as being a problem and urged the branch organizations to unite in the name of being better represented before the relevant authorities. The new amendments to the Tourism Act propose that the Tourism Ministry accepts as partners up to six nationally represented associations, Angelkova said. Currently there are 203 associations registered in the national tourism register.