The bill to support farmers provides an opportunity to more quickly approve and negotiate projects under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, to extend aid for the excise tax on gas oil, to bypass the definition of an active farmer
It will be considered today at the first reading in the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Forestry The draft amendment to the Law on Assistance to Agricultural Producers (LAW). The bill was introduced by a group of people’s representatives, but it was probably written in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, as happened with the Law on the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Lands.
“The urgency of the bill in the field of direct payments is also conditioned by the need to open the reception of applications to support Campaign 2024, in which the conditions and rules for granting direct support meet the legitimate expectations of farmers to receive a fair supplement to the income from agricultural activity with direct subsidies, as well as for the administration to ensure a predictable and secure legal environment,” the reasons read.
The proposed changes are in several directions.
One of them is to include the methodologies and orders of the Minister for approving rules in the official section of the “State Gazette”.
In order to achieve a faster and more efficient negotiation and utilization of the funds for investments in the two directions of the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan (NRSP), which were open for admissions in September – December 2023, the director of the DF is given the opportunity “Agriculture” to delegate by order its powers regarding the “Sustainable agriculture” component in the RAP.
The reasons state that under the direction “Investments in technological and ecological modernization” (budget BGN 381.7 million) and the direction “Centers for preparation for marketing and storage of fruits and vegetables” (budget BGN 18 million ) received over 4,000 projects. It is expected that in April the fund will complete the evaluation of the projects and start concluding contracts. In order to be able to proceed more quickly, it is necessary to increase the powers of the director.
The effect of the state aid for the excise duty on gas oil will be extended until the end of 2026 through changes in the law.
The bill clears up the possibility that some producers who develop other activities will remain outside the support, as they do not meet the definition of an active agricultural farmer. For this purpose, the requirement that the income from agricultural activity constitutes at least 1/3 of the total income of the farm is changed to “constitute at least 10%”. The annual amount of direct payments, which was required to be a minimum of 5% of total revenue, is changed to “a minimum of 2%”.
The possibility of submitting applications for intervention support to the DFZ without an electronic signature is extended until the end of 2025.
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