Bulgarian firms spend 3.4B leva a year on regulatory filings – think-tank
The cost of filing paperwork required by Bulgarian regulations stands at 3.4 billion leva (about 1.7 billion euro) each year, according to Institute for Market Economics (IME) think-tank in Sofia.
IME’s calculations are based on the data made available by the country’s Economy Ministry, which, over the past four years, has hired consultants to evaluate the impact of the regulatory burden on Bulgaria’s firms.
The figure includes the direct financial burden, as well as associated costs such as labour, time and paper (since most Bulgarian institutions still require paper copies of various filings).
The surveys focused on 35 laws, a small fraction of more than 300 pieces of legislation in effect, but the list includes the most regulation-intensive acts, such as the Social Insurance Code and the Labour Code, the Tax Insurance Procedure Code, as well as the VAT, excise duties and corporate tax laws.
IME suggested that the cost of filing regulatory notifications could be reduced by 453 million leva by simplifying filing instructions, removing some regulations and their implied filings, allowing certain filings to be made entirely electronically or online, among others.
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(Photo: Marcel Hol/sxc.hu)
