Bulgarian Rightist Party Seeks Money Laundering Probe at Lukoil

Dimitar Bachvarov (left) and Svetoslav Malinov (right) from DSB presented the party’s views on Lukoil’s activities in Bulgaria at a press-conference on Monday. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) have demanded that the State Agency for National Security (DANS) should check the money flows of the Lukoil company and investigate the business for alleged money laundering.

Speaking at a Monday press-conference, DSB Deputy Chair Svetoslav Malinov insisted that the ministries of economy and of transport ought to analyze the high prices of fuels sold by the Lukoil Neftochim refinery on the domestic market.

Dimitar Bachvarov, a member of the national governing body of DSB, argued in turn that it was the duty of the state "to shed light on such anomalies".

Citing data published on energy.eu, Europe's energy portal, he emphasized that prices of gasoline and diesel in Bulgaria contained the biggest industry margin of all 27 EU Member States.

The industry margin indicator shows what is left for the producer and the distributor of the duel once VAT, excise duty and the price of crude oil are deducted.

Bachcvarov drew attention to the fact that Lukoil was registering a loss for a fourth year in a row, despite the high industry margin.

To illustrate his point, he told journalists about a Swedish refinery which he said won EUR 10 from the processing of a ton of crude oil against the backdrop of one of the lowest industrial prices of diesel and gasoline on the local market.

"Meanwhile, Lukoil reported a loss of EUR 10," the right-wing MP stressed.

"This is both impossible and unacceptable. The average monthly wage in Bulgaria is eight times lower than in Sweden," Bachvarov commented.

"What is more, corporate tax , which is at 10% here, is almost three times lower than in Sweden," he added.

"It is obvious that the things that are going on at Lukoil need to be brought out into the light so that the actual reasons behind the high prices can come out," the DSB MP stated.

Svetoslav Malinov suggested that the checks conducted at the company by the respective institutions were an instrument for exerting pressure and that the doubts that had arisen could not be left unattended by the state.

Commenting on last week's talks with Alexei Miller, Chair of the Board of Directors of Russian Gazprom, Bachvarov said that they had failed to yield a result and that the parties had "negotiated to negotiate".

The right-wing MP explained that Bulgaria had been put into a week position by the fact that it could not rely on gas grid interconnections as an alternative source of gas supplies.

Bachvarov insisted that Bulgarian society had the right to know what parameters the two sides had agreed upon during the talks.

On February 29, DSB Chair Ivan Kostov accused Lukoil of monopoly abuses, which he said had long gone unpunished by the Commission on Protection of Competition (KZK).

"12 months ago, following waves of protest by Bulgaria's civil society, a moratorium was imposed on fuel prices with the agreement of the government. Lukoil made this "gesture" because it was concerned by the protests. It turns out that now Lukoil holds a monopoly over almost 80% of the warehouses for liquid fuels and has so far failed to install measuring devices allowing the monitoring of liquid fuel flows," Kostov said in Parliament.

On the following day, Lukoil responded with an open letter, saying that the rightist leader had distributed a number of false claims.

The fuel retailer said that the campaign spearheaded by Kostov was actually a campaign against control and transparency in the fuel sector.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!