site.btaNational Revenue Agency to Tighten Control of High Fiscal Risk Goods

Now that Bulgaria has joined land-border Schengen, the National Revenue Agency (NRA) is tightening control of high fiscal risk goods. The checks, however, will be conducted inland and at unloading locations known to the NRA, the Agency's Executive Director Rumen Spetsov said here on Wednesday.

The movement of cargo identified as risky by risk management experts will continue to be inspected, too, jointly with the rest of the institutions.

"The NRA continues to perform its control functions. The fact that our inspectors will not be at the border crossings but inland will by no means lower the level of the inspections' security and effectiveness. We have mobile offices with access to the central database so as to be able to track down high fiscal goods in real time," Spetsov told journalists. He specified that Bulgaria's Schengen entry will not affect the NRA staff size. The employees will be reassigned from the border zones to the interior.

The Executive Director said that admission to Europe's border-free area will by no means diminish the revenue authorities' control functions - on the contrary. "These activities of the NRA are part of Bulgaria's economic security and stability and they will be carried out perfectly and unconditionally," Spetsov emphasized.

The list of high fiscal risk goods includes specified types of meat and edible offal, fish, shrimps, milk and cream, whey, butter and other fats and oils derived from milk, cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, leeks, carrots and turnips, cucumbers and gherkins, legumes, mushrooms, courgettes, olives, bananas, pineapples, avocados, citrus fruits, watermelons, melons, apples, pears and quinces, apricots, peaches, plums, strawberries, raspberries, kiwifruit and cherries, olive oil, sunflower seed oil, palm oil, cane and beet sugar, coffee, nuts, animal fats, aviation gasoline, engine fuel, jet fuel, fuel oils, gas oil and some other petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals.

The updated list enters into force as of January 1, 2025.

Mandatory pre-declaring of high fiscal risk goods movements was introduced on January 3, 2024 for transport originating in the territory of another EU Member State and ending in the territory of Bulgaria or originating in the territory of Bulgaria and ending in the territory of another EU Member State.