Bulgaria lowers VAT on restaurant sales, catering services, books and baby food
Bulgaria’s National Assembly approved on June 10 the second reading of amendments to the Value-Added Tax Act, reducing the tax rate on restaurant sales, catering services, books, baby foods and baby hygiene products from 20 per cent to nine per cent.
The reduced VAT rate will be in effect between July 1 2020 and December 31 2021.
Amendments to reduce the VAT on wine and beer sold in restaurants, tabled by the minority government coalition partner, as well as to reduce VAT on basic foods and medicine, tabled by the opposition socialists, were rejected by MPs.
Also on June 10, Bulgaria’s Cabinet agreed at a meeting to allocate an additional five million leva (about 2.55 million euro) to the Ministry of Culture, a government statement said.
The funds, in line with an earlier announcement by the Culture Ministry, are for the implementation of programmes and projects by private cultural organisations and by people in the field of culture and arts during and after the period of the epidemic declaration because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The statement said that 2.2 million leva would go to the National Culture Fund, with 1.5 million leva intended to support private cultural organisations, including “small auteur cinemas, circuses, art spaces and so on” and 700 000 leva for small grants to individual artists for works shown via the internet.
There is 500 000 leva each for the creation of new theatre, musical and dance projects for the stage, and the same amount for a completely new programme in the field of visual arts, while there is 800 000 leva for already-ready musical, dance or theatre productions, according to the government statement.
(Photo: pikist.com)
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