Hotel Owners in Bulgaria's Sunny Beach Rise Anew against Double Taxation

The Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach has given ground to repeated protests over the ownership of infrastructure and alleged double taxation. Photo by carhirebulgaria.eu

Representatives of the arguing parties from Bulgaria's Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach have declared their willingness to engage in a new dialogue on the hotly contested infrastructure tax and access to the eastern part of the complex.

The Union of Hotel Owners in Sunny Beach, have complained about the existence of privately-owned streets in the resort and about undergoing double taxation by means of the local taxes and fees and the infrastructure tax paid to the state-owned joint-stock company Sunny Beach AD, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

The issue has sparked repeated protests, with hoteliers threatening to block the Black Sea resort ahead of the peak of the summer tourist season.

Sunny Beach, the biggest and one of the most popular sea resorts in Bulgaria, is currently 75% state-owned and 25% owned by minority shareholders.

According to Elena Ivanova from the Union of Hotel Owners in Sunny Beach, these problems have plagued the resort for over 10 years, growing in intensity with every year.

Apart from the infrastructure fee, termed illegal by local hotel owners, another obstacle is temporary street trading sites in the complex.

Hoteliers have called for a ban on granting permits to street traders, stressing that the number of such sites in the resort two years ago was 1150.

They want to see the ownership of streets and sidewalks in Sunny Beach-East transferred to the Nessebar Municipality like the streets in Sunny Beach-West.

The Union of Hotel Owners in Sunny Beach believes that these arguments will probably be settled in court.

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