The National Assembly adopted amendments to the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act at second reading. The Council of Ministers proposed the amendments.
They regulate the status of the independent small winemakers. The draft act stipulates that “an independent small winemaker” is a winemaker who is “legally and economically independent from any other winemaker, uses premises which are physically separated from the premises of any other winemaker and does not carry out its activities under a granted licence”. Where two or more small winemakers work together and their total annual production does not exceed 1,000 hectolitres of wine, those winemakers shall be considered to be an independent small winemaker, subject to the amendments.
The texts introduce new statuses for the economic operators: a certified consignor and a certified consignee to enable the economic operators using these arrangements to be identified in the computer system. It creates a legal possibility for licensed warehouse keepers and registered consignors to also act as certified consignors. It is envisaged that the paper document accompanying the excise goods released for consumption in one Member State and being transported to another EU Member State will be replaced by a new electronic simplified administrative document.
According to the adopted provisions, whoever sends or possesses and transports excise goods without a simplified accompanying document/registered electronic simplified administrative document shall be punished with a fine for physical entities in the amount of BGN 1,000 to BGN 4,000 or with a pecuniary sanction for legal entities and sole traders in the amount of BGN 2,000 to BGN 6,000. In case of repeated violation, the fine ranges from BGN 3,000 to BGN 6,000 and the pecuniary penalty ranges from BGN 4,000 to BGN 8,000. The Parliament decided that these sanctions will be imposed as of February 2023.
The changes are justified by the need to transpose into the national legislation the requirements of a European directive laying down the general arrangements for excise duty and of another directive harmonising the structure of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages.
.