site.btaPrime Minister Borissov: Government Will Fight Relentlessly Contraband

Prime Minister Borissov: Government Will Fight Relentlessly Contraband

Sofia, October 7 (BTA) - Attending Friday a working meeting on measures against contraband, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov reported a drop in contraband cigarettes sales across the country.

By the second quarter of 2016, contraband cigarette dropped to 8.1 per cent compared with 8.3 per cent by the fourth quarter of 2015.

This is the lowest level in the past nine years but Pernik, Haskovo, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik and Rousse have higher levels of contraband, said Borissov. The heads of the regional police departments have one month to curb the illegal trade in cigarettes. Otherwise Borissov threatened them with dismissals. The Prime Minister said that the most complex situation was in Pernik and that the police in Sofia was coping well.

Borissov said that Bulgaria's efforts against contraband cigarettes and counterfeit money have been acknowledged by Europol, Spain, Hungary and Austria.

The Prime Minister commended all institutions involved in the fight against contraband whose efforts have generated 3.7 billion leva more in revenues in the past two years. "Our efforts are bearing fruit and I can assure you that the government will be relentless. We won't budge and we'll be even harsher."

Borissov said that all smuggling channels have been closed and speculated that there might be gaps along the border with Serbia and Macedonia merely because of its length. The Prime Minister compared results in Bulgaria with those in other European countries which are more favourable for Bulgaria. He said: "That's why they
want our resignation. Why didn't they collect those revenues before?"

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On October 3, the police seized 12,500 cigarette boxes without excise duty, worth nearly 100,000 leva in the car of two men from Kresna.