A total of 166 fuelling stations have been closed because they are not connected to the system of the
National Revenue Agency (NRA), NRA Executive Director Krassimir Stefanov told a news conference Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, within just two hours, NRA inspectors closed 40 fuelling stations because their cash registers were not connected to the Agency's information system. Some of the facilities did not open at all on Tuesday because they have not yet fulfilled the requirement of submitting electronically data to NRA.

Inspecting fuelling stations across the country NRA teams found and sealed 76 sites operating without connection to the Agency'ssystem while 90 fuelling stations did not open at all. A total of 2,202 sites are registered in the NRA system.

"Something which was consciously avoided 20 years is being done today," Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said. He stated this cost the government enormous efforts and that a meeting with all participants in the process of connecting the fuelling stations with the NRA system had been held at the end of every week in
the past few months.

Borissov added that a 30 per cent drop in fuel sales has been registered, which is proof that illegal trade has been stopped. According to the Prime Minister, this will mean at least an additional 100 million leva for the budget.

Under the law, as of January 11 the fuelling stations should submit electronically data about the daily turnover to the tax authorities as the owners would not be involved in this process.

Besides, RNA authorities will have real-time access to all cash registers installed at the fuelling stations. Within the next few days the inspections will cover all fuelling facilities. Sanctions in case of non-compliance may reach up to 10,000 leva.

According to RNA data, 3,000 fuelling stations on the average report monthly turnover of about 400 million leva from the sale of liquid fuels.

By the end of September 2011 at the latest every company registered under VAT should connect its cash registers to the information system of RNA and by the end of March 2012 every fiscal device should send data to RNA.

The state will place sensors on the tanks of fuelling stations, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said before bTV. According to the Minister, this measure is necessary so as to achieve a 100 per cent victory over smuggling. It has been proposed by the Association of Fuel Traders.

Djankov explained that in some of the small fuelling stations a cistern would arrive during the night and pour fuel directly in the tank adding that the proceeds from the sale of this fuel arenot reported to RNA.

The Finance Minister has already initiated a legislative amendment envisaging the placement of such sensors. Besides, a special monitoring group of tax and customs officers is expected
to be established.

The supplementary measures may ensure additional funds of up to 300 million leva to the exchequer, the Finance Minister believes.