Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry to Introduce Tax on Uncultivated Land

An expert group will start working on tax on uncultivated lands by end-May, Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Dimitar Grekov announced at a meeting with agricultural associations

The new tax seeks to stimulate owners to lease uncultivated lands to cooperatives and to local companies in order to utilize fertile agricultural lands.

Experts will determine the new tax amount, define the difference between uncultivated and unclaimed lands, as well as decide on the abandoned lands. The expert group will include specialists from the Agriculture ministry and business representatives, Minister Grekov said.

"Such a tax would make land owners consider taking the appropriate measures, namely lease the uncultivated land, or put these lands for sale," said the chair of the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Producers Ventsislav Varbanov.

The National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria indicated that the uncultivated or abandoned lands are a serious problem and a potential tax on them would be hard to collect as many of the owners have left the country.

The amount of uncultivated land comes up to a total of 1.6 million decares, which brings some BGN 15-16M to the state budget annually, Darik news reports.

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