site.btaMP Delyan Peevski Urges Lukoil to Pay Their Taxes and Obey the Law

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Co-Floor Leader Delyan Peevski said on Wednesday he was surprised to hear from the Lukoil Neftochim refinery in the Black Sea city of Burgas that they do not owe any taxes to the Bulgarian state.

In a statement released by the MRF press office, Peevski said that Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov had told him and GERB leader Boyko Borissov something very different on Monday. The two learned from the Prime Minister that Lukoil had called Denkov's chief of cabinet the previous evening to assure the government that they would pay BGN 500 million in taxes by the end of the week. Their subsequent explanations show, however, that this will not happen, according to Peevski. He commented in his statement that Lukoil Bulgaria "do not apparently realize that they are a Bulgarian company operating under Bulgarian law and headquartered in Bulgaria".

Peevski went on to note: "I want to state clearly that the MRF's position is this: if Lukoil fail to fulfill what they have promised to Bulgarian government officials - that they will pay their taxes by the end of the month, and after the energy bill passes on Friday and the presidential veto is overturned, they will begin to pay BGN 0.73 per litre [of fuel] from their excessive profit to reimburse consumers and reduce fuel prices - we will submit a proposal as soon as the National Assembly reconvenes after the second round of the local elections, to insist that Lukoil's derogation [from an EU ban on Russian oil] should be revoked."

Peevski argued that the derogation was initially intended to make fuel cheaper for Bulgarian people and businesses, "rather than allowing billions in excessive profit to be used to finance the war in Ukraine".

Peevski's statement comes a day after Lukoil Neftochim said that they are paying all legally required taxes within the established deadlines and are completely honouring their obligations to the Bulgarian Exchequer. The company added that any statements to the contrary do not correspond to the truth and damage their reputation.

Peevski also said that "we expect the Prime Minister to report in writing to Parliament about the intentions, actions and state of play in the Lukoil case, and do that by Thursday evening."