Bulgarian Police Hits on Excise Fraudsters

Both Bulgarian alcohol distributors and producers are involved in the excise scam according to the Bulgarian Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian police have launched Wednesday in the entire country a special operation targeting excise duty fraudsters, said in a media appearance Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

Tsvetanov announced that Bulgaria's big alcohol producers are being currently inspected including Karnobat, Turgovishte and Peshtera, as according to police information distributors who evade excise duties get their alcohol directly from the Bulgarian producers.

“Our goal is to discipline both alcohol producers and distributors. If violations are found, the offenders will be deprived of their license. The state needs to take active measures against all those who benefit from breaking the law,” said Tsvetanov.

The special 'excise duty' police op is a follow-up of the March and April police raids when 225 000 bottles of alcohol with no excise band or fake alcohol were confiscated. This is but a small part of the illegal alcohol that is put on the market, still it is a serious drain to the state budget, causing losses of about BGN 600 000 according to the interior minister.

Special op 'the clerk' was also launched Wednesday in Sofia, targeting a ministerial official over alleged manipulation of grant applications for the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Program.