[size=55:1dtc0i3u]Sofia echo 01 September 2010

Tighter controls on Bulgarian roads

Bulgaria's Automobile Administration agency has stepped up checks on Bulgarian roads, collecting 275 000 leva in fines from vehicles with foreign registration in August alone, the Transport Ministry said in a statement on August 31.

The checks were meant to fight the grey economy in road transport, the ministry said. The agency inspected 3900 vehicles and issued 230 fines, imposing 60 administrative punishments, which included stopping the vehicles and seizing driver licenses.

The worst offenders were drivers of vehicles with Turkish license plates, with 102 violations found by the agency, followed by Romanians with 40.

In a separate campaign, the agency has been checking vehicles to ensure that companies did not illegally carry out transportation services without paying the due taxes and fees.

The agency found 520 instances of such breaches, which would be followed up by fines and forced payment of taxes avoided. The usual signs that the cargo was being transported for another firm, rather than company expense transportation as claimed, were the lack of a contract for the driver, the lack of paperwork proving ownership of the cargo or paperwork proving that the driver was an employee of the company that owned the cargo, the ministry said.

This is fine if it works but my experience is that most of the old bill in BG are open to bribes