Bulgaria shelves plans to move revenue agency offices from Sofia
Plans to move the central offices of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) from Sofia to Veliko Turnovo have now been postponed indefinitely, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said during a visit to Veliko Turnovo.
In May, Borissov and Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov announced the intention to move a number of state agencies from Sofia, ostensibly to improve the local economy in some of Bulgaria’s larger towns and to bring the administration into closer geographic proximity to their regulated sectors.
As such, the fishery agency would move to Bourgas on the Black Sea coast and the tourism agency would be moved to Plovdiv, while the headquarters of the customs agency would be at Rousse, the site of one of the largest customs on Bulgaria’s borders.
Veliko Turnovo was picked as the headquarters for the NRA because of the sterling work of the local district administrative court, Dyankov said at the time.
However, insofar as the revenue agency is concerned, the plans have been put on hold indefinitely because the move would be too costly, Borissov said, but that delay would not apply to other agencies slated to complete their moves by autumn.
Bulgaria’s Cabinet hopes to complete the move of about 20 state agencies out of Sofia by mid-2013. Civil servants would be paid an extra salary to help cover personal costs of the move, while local administration would help them with other personal issues like finding places in kindergartens and schools for their children.
(Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov photo by the Finance Ministry)
