site.btaHotel and Restaurant Association: Keep Differentiated 9% VAT

The Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (BHRA) Thursday urged the Parliamentary Tourism Committee to keep the 9% VAT rate for hotels and restaurants. "Our business is specific in that it uses a large amount of human labour, which is reflected in prices," said BHRA Deputy Chairman Branimir Milanov.

He called on the MPs to stick to the EU practice and quoted European Commission data showing that a differentiated VAT rate is in place in 22 countries for restaurants and in 26 countries for hotels.

The money saved is directed exclusively to the industry's employees, Milanov said.

The VAT rate was reduced from 20% to 9%  for hotels and restaurants, children's goods and books as of July 1, 2020, to offset the negative impact of the pandemic.

Milanov catalogued other key factors in the development of tourism: staffing, visa policy, changes in the statutory framework on concessions in tourism, determining the status of national resorts, medical services to tourists, mandatory government support, EU projects promoting tourism, compensation for the surge in electricity, water and gas prices, grant financing of energy-saving systems, and amendments to the Tourism Act, the Local Taxes and Fees Act and the Spatial Development Act.

He said he would send the MPs detailed memos on these problems.

/MT/

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By 11:50 on 12.01.2025 Today`s news

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