Sunny Beach PLC to introduce new tax rules

Sunny Beach PLC, which is a 75% state-owned company, wants to introduce new rules for the infrastructure tax, charged by hoteliers for the maintenance of lanes, pavements and part of the water infrastructure. Until now, this tax was based on the number of beds, and in the future it will be based on the built-up area. In addition to hoteliers, the infrastructure tax will be paid by restaurateurs and shop owners, Sunny Beach PLC representatives explained. However, hoteliers and owners object to this because this is double taxation for them. They report on the tourist tax at the Nessebar Municipality and have been refusing for years to pay the infrastructure tax, levied by Sunny Beach PLC.

“We will not pay a company that is virtually racketeering us,” said Vesselin Nalbantov, Management Board member of the Union of Owners at Sunny Beach. “The company no longer owns any infrastructure, it only takes care of lanes and green areas, most of which it sold long ago,” Nalbantov added. He reminded of a decision of the Prosecutor’s Office ruling that the state-owned company has no right to collect taxes and rents.

At the beginning of the transition period, Sunny Beach PLC was managing the resort and the hotels in it. However, the hotels were privatised and only green areas, lanes, pavements, beaches and water infrastructure remained in the hands of the company. Currently, most of the sewage and water network are owned by the Burgas water and sewage utility, the beaches are granted by concession and most of the green areas have been sold to the hotels.

Hoteliers want the Nessebar Municipality to control the operation of businesses since they pay a tourist tax to the local government. “Sunny Beach is not an ordinary population place, it is a resort of national importance and that is why the state-owned company manages the complex,” Lazar Yapadzhiev, Deputy Mayor of Nessebar, told Klassa. “If the State decides to assign the management of the infrastructure to the municipality, we will assume these functions,” he said.

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