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[size=75:3vyujtfc]novinite November 19, 2009

Bulgaria Parliament Presents New Twist on Alcohol, Cigarettes Tax

The Members of the Bulgarian Parliament offered Thursday the latest surprise regarding the alcohol and cigarettes tax increase.

The new excise duties were changed and increased on second read during the Budget Committee meeting from their values approved on first read. The move makes the Parliamentary Hall voting crucial for the final decision.

The hard liquor tax, according to the latest stakes, would increase by BGN 0,72 per liter. The increase also includes the traditional homemade grape and fruit brandy - “rakia” where just the first 30 liters would be free of taxation. Only beer tax remains unchanged.

The cigarette tax will be BGN 100 for 1 000 cigarettes plus 23% of the sales prices. This will reduce the price difference between cheaper and more expensive cigarettes, but all cigarettes will be sold for over BGN 4 for a pack.

The opposition voiced once again their opinion the price hike would lead to an increase of cigarette and alcohol contraband while tobacco makers believe the move would not lower the staggering number of smokers in the country and would rather lead to people rolling tobacco, smoking cheaper cigarettes, or buying them on the black marker

at least they are considering the implications of a ban, which the uk government did not. the voters had no say, no options were offered and the impact was devastating to business,s.

oh, but they do have a smoking area in the commons, says it all really.

They also have a free bar,which is paid for by the taxpayer




Mike

yeah yeah yeah, i missed my way i did.

[size=75:3lzlqr9g]novinite 26 February 2010

Cross-Party Alliance Waters Down Smoking Ban in Bulgaria

When it is about politics, Bulgaria's parliament is clearly split between right and left. However, when it comes to smokers' rights, the ideological divide vanishes and bitter foes unite to defend them.

An ad hoc coalition fusing the ruling centre-right Gerb with the main opposition Socialist Party has recently watered down draft legislation, which would completely prohibit smoking in all public establishments, including cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars as from 1 June.

A flexible option was proposed instead under which establishments larger than 100 square metres would be required to have separate rooms for smokers fitted with ventilation and the owners of smaller businesses would be able to choose between a smoking or non-smoking regime.

Prime Minister Boiko Borisov based the compromise on losses a total ban could cause to the tourist industry which has already been bitten by the economic crisis.

"
Just two of a total of 27 EU countries have complete smoking bans,"
argued Lachezar Ivanov, the head of the parliamentary health committee.

Bulgarians, along with Greeks, are the heaviest smokers in the EU. Current legislation in Bulgaria bans smoking in public buildings like state institutions, shops, schools and hospitals. It is still legal to smoke in cafes and restaurants but their owners are required to clearly detach smoking from non-smoking areas.

"
Smoking bans are inhuman,"
said Socialist lawmaker Andrei Pantev. "
Smoking is part of the beauty of life."

[size=75:1nu07sx4]Sofia echo 20 March 2010

Indifferent to smoking

June 2010 would have been a milestone moment in Bulgaria’s public health history, given that this was the month when the full ban on smoking in public was due to come into force. Unfortunately for non-smokers and for those keen on having their evening drink or meal in a smoke-free environment, the ban will not happen. Not for at least another year, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov said.

This was announced in February when Dyankov said that the ban, however logical and healthy it might seem, would be postponed to the beginning of 2011. Dyankov was only the messenger, announcing a decision already discussed by the ruling party’s majority in Parliament.

Postponing the ban was meant to help Bulgaria’s restaurant and hotel business recover from the economic crisis, Dyankov said, seeking to explain the u-turn in his views.

From the moment he took office in the summer of 2009, Dyankov has been one of the most active campaigners against not just smoking in public, but against smoking in general.

He managed to get Prime Minister Boiko Borissov on his side, with Borissov saying that he had cut down on smoking, smoking only cigars, and underlining that smoking was a bad thing in itself.

Rule abiding nation?

No doubt the years that Dyankov spent living in the US helped him develop strong views against smoking and against those who violate the rules.

Unfortunately, Bulgarians fail on both accounts. Smoking has been part of Bulgarians’ culture for decades and it was not until the past 15 years, when the country started its integration into the European Union, that smoking started seriously to come under fire. The numerous environmental and ecological organisations, movements and parties, that have emerged in the past few years, also helped spread the news that smoking is a bad thing.

Smoking is by no means a habit limited to Bulgaria, but what probably makes things different is that while in other countries people respect the smoking ban because of the high fines, in Bulgaria few people fear being sanctioned, simply because restrictions are seldom enforced.

This reality was reflected in the words of one of the leaders of ruling party GERB’s group in Parliament, Iskra Fidosova, who said that there was a need for a better system for banning smoking because the proposed new restrictions would not be followed anyway. Prime Minister Boiko Borissov was even more direct, saying "
there is no way for the ban to happen, not now, not ever;
we (Bulgarians) know ourselves well after all"
.

The principle is, no one will obey the ban, so what is the point in imposing it? The June 2010 ban was approved by the previous Parliament, in 2009, and inherited by the current Government. GERB decided, rather than attempting to make it work, to abandon the ban.

GERB, however, is not the only party to be blamed for trying to escape the smoking ban issue, because when the three former ruling parties voted for the law in 2009, they decided that the ban should come into force only after a year had passed. By doing so, they bequeathed the issue to their successors in government, GERB.

It’s the crisis

The decision to postpone the ban by a year was not taken solely because of a lack of means to enforce it effectively. The reason given was that, amid an economic crisis, banning smoking in restaurants would mean that an industry already in deep difficulty would be pushed over the edge altogether.

The question of the effect that a smoking ban has on restaurants, bars and coffee shops is central to the debate in every country, economic crisis or none. In Bulgaria, fears that restaurant business would suffer from the ban were expressed three or four years ago when restaurants were told to reserve part of their premises for non-smokers.

Back then, there was no economic crisis, and in fact Bulgaria’s economy was on the rise. Furthermore, surveys on the effect of the smoking ban are contradictory, and findings may well depend on who was behind the survey. From this point of view, linking the issue to the current economic crisis is more a matter of politics than logic, playing on people’s fears because of the crisis.

One hospitality industry organisation said that, on principle, a ban on smoking would actually help establishments save money, because unlimited smoking meant having to install powerful ventilation systems and to do renovations every couple of years, but because of the crisis it was better that the ban was postponed.

This year holds a lot of challenges for the Government and Bulgarians in terms of smoking, and the ban is just one. The tobacco industry is likely to be harder hit by the new prices that are to come into effect when producers have to pay new excises as they run out of old excise stamps, than by the ban itself.

Raising excise duties has never been a popular move, and now it seems that the Government has decided that adding a smoking ban to the package would be a little bit too much for smokers in one year, especially since, according to some surveys, there are three million active smokers in Bulgaria.

Some coincidences

The day that GERB MPs announced their decision to cut back the full ban on smoking, the media found out that one of the MPs behind the idea, Emil Dimitrov, elected to Parliament in July 2009, previously owned half of a company trading in cigarettes.

Dimitrov is a former chairperson of the Association of Tobacco Producers and Traders, which puts him in a delicate position, with it being alleged that he was one of the Bulgarian tobacco industry’s lobbyists in Parliament.

In his defence, Dimitrov can say that he was not among the seven GERB MPs who introduced the amendments. However, he was the first one, in 2009, to speak about modifying the ban. Naturally his former business position and GERB’s u-turn on the smoking ban could just be a coincidence.

Public reaction

As might have been expected, tobacco business representatives, restaurant and bar owners and industry organisations welcomed the news of the amendments.

The Health Ministry, the institution which by law is obliged to look after the nation’s health, has so far not taken any official position on the amendments.

Notably, the amendments sparked no major public reaction, unlike the protests against the legislative amendments related to GMOs, for example. With the exception of a few online forums and groups on social networks, there was basically no organised public reaction to the news. This made it scant surprise that the voice of corporate interests was heard, while public indifference to the issue might suggest that Bulgarians do not actually consider smoking in public an issue worth dealing with, or at least not at this stage.

[size=85:6vus23mu]novinite 14 May 2010

Bulgaria Health Commission Tightens Smoking Ban

The Bulgarian Healthcare Commission has decided to reduce the size of bars/restaurants that will be allowed to permit smoking on their whole premises.

The Commission announced Thursday that they would reduce the permitted size from 100 square meters to 50 sq.m, meaning that any bars/restaurants over the size of 50 sq.m will have to provide a separate isolate room for smokers.

This decision came after the Commission reviewed changes to the Health Act regarding smoking, before the second reading of the new bill is held in the Bulgarian Parliament. The final changes mean that there will be a full smoking ban in public places on June 1, while just 24 hours later on June 2, smoking will be allowed under certain conditions.

It was also revealed that for all bars/restaurants that only work at night there will be no requirement to provide a separate room for smoking.

On April 28 The Bulgarian parliament approved on first read the proposed relaxation of Bulgaria's smoking ban in all closed public spaces.

The ban on smoking in all public places in Bulgaria was set to be enforced June 1, 2010. However, the GERB Cabinet came up with a proposal to relax the all-out smoking ban.

The draft amendments of the Health Act on easing the much anticipated all-out public smoking ban has surprisingly managed to bring together the ruling center-right GERB with the main opposition Socialist Party.

The ad hoc coalition claims that the proposed relaxation of a ban on smoking in all public places would avoid hurting the tourist industry during tough economic times.

Admin wrote:

[size=85:3v6aq01e]novinite 14 May 2010

Bulgaria Health Commission Tightens Smoking Ban

The Bulgarian Healthcare Commission has decided to reduce the size of bars/restaurants that will be allowed to permit smoking on their whole premises.

The Commission announced Thursday that they would reduce the permitted size from 100 square meters to 50 sq.m, meaning that any bars/restaurants over the size of 50 sq.m will have to provide a separate isolate room for smokers.

This decision came after the Commission reviewed changes to the Health Act regarding smoking, before the second reading of the new bill is held in the Bulgarian Parliament. The final changes mean that there will be a full smoking ban in public places on June 1, while just 24 hours later on June 2, smoking will be allowed under certain conditions.

It was also revealed that for all bars/restaurants that only work at night there will be no requirement to provide a separate room for smoking.

On April 28 The Bulgarian parliament approved on first read the proposed relaxation of Bulgaria's smoking ban in all closed public spaces.

The ban on smoking in all public places in Bulgaria was set to be enforced June 1, 2010. However, the GERB Cabinet came up with a proposal to relax the all-out smoking ban.

The draft amendments of the Health Act on easing the much anticipated all-out public smoking ban has surprisingly managed to bring together the ruling center-right GERB with the main opposition Socialist Party.

The ad hoc coalition claims that the proposed relaxation of a ban on smoking in all public places would avoid hurting the tourist industry during tough economic times.

Looks like someone is using there Brain as the blanket Ban did not work in Italy or France and in Turkey all the bars take no notice of the law as they get warned when inspections take place lol,

Quote :

marlyn wrote

Looks like someone is using there Brain as the blanket Ban did not work in Italy or France and in Turkey all the bars take no notice of the law as they get warned when inspections take place lol,

Well put and its about time that common sense prevailed it works in the UK but only out of fear where as in most other countries there isn't that same fear or respect for the law, but none the less why stop people from a puff, I personally don't smoke but have nothing against those that do I say live and let live