Truffle and mushroom pickers protested in Sofia today, declaring against changes to the Personal Income Tax Act, which repeal the alternative tax on income from picking wild mushrooms and berries.
“We protested that a law was introduced in the Parliament’s Committee on Budget and Finance, which repeals the law on taxation of natural persons, which entered into force on January 1 of this year,” Dimitar Dimitrov, chairman of the National Association, pointed out for BTA. Bulgarian truffle”.
He recalled that last week, within 3-4 days, the legislative changes were approved in the first reading in the budget committee and in the National Assembly. Today, the bill also passed a second reading in committee and is due to be voted on in the chamber later in the day. “Everything is done very hastily, without consulting the industry,” commented Dimitrov, adding that the draft law has many inaccuracies, there is much to be clarified.
He explained that all associations and associations of traders and collectors of non-timber forest products have united around this opinion. All of them sent opinions immediately after the adoption of the first reading in the budget committee, but this was neither reflected nor taken into account.
The chairman of the “Bulgarian Truffle” Association emphasized that there was no public discussion and no one asked the industry.
According to him, the bill passed at the beginning of this year is a small step in the right direction. “We have been trying to draw attention to the industry in Bulgaria for years. We may have written dozens of letters annually. Finally something was done and it was not given a chance to see if it worked,” said Dimitrov.
The protesters requested a meeting, but were denied by the Committee on Budget and Finance.
From now on, they hope the president will veto it, as they have asked him to do, and they won’t have to take any further action. “We don’t want to protest, we want to be given a chance to work, not to deal with protests,” Dimitrov concluded.
The changes that cancel the alternative tax for income from collecting wild mushrooms and fruits, including medicinal plants, were introduced by MPs Yordan Tsonev and Temenuzka Petkova. The report of the Committee on Budget and Finance states that this type of economic activity affects nearly 30,000 registered persons, for whom the tax appears excessive and clearly unfair. The alternative tax is payable before the realization of the production and is highly dependent on climatic conditions, it is noted in the reasons. In addition, it creates an additional administrative burden for the state forest enterprises, which, issuing the permits for the relevant month, are obliged to withhold, declare and pay the mandatory insurance contributions and alternative tax.
Earlier today, a group of truffle hunters gathered in front of the Dunav Mandatory Hunting Farm building in Ruse to express their displeasure, albeit with different demands.
“Those of us gathered here are not members of associations. Our demands are that there should be a planned harvest of non-timber products in every single forestry. There is no such thing in Ruse forestry, and we cannot collect non-wood products, even though we have paid,” Eleonora Terzieva, who has been a truffle hunter for 10 years, told BTA.
She said that they have nothing against the protest of their colleagues today in Sofia, but they want to express other opinions as well.
“We want to return to last year’s model before the creation of the Law on Truffles – that is, when we went to the point of each sold truffle, we were withheld a 10 percent tax from the purchasers, who were obliged to bring it to the state,” said Terzieva.
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