The notorious businessman Ivo Prokopiev collects as profit millions of leva from the sale of limestone at inflated prices

A profit of millions of leva from the sale of limestone alone is being collected by the notorious businessman Ivo Prokopiev, who is a majority owner of Kaolin JSC, according to the results of an inspection of the Ministry of Economy, SEWRC (State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission) and NEK (National Electricity Company) on the purchasing price of limestone used by the TPP Maritsa-Iztok 1 (Maritsa-east), TPP Maritsa- East 2 and TPP Maritsa-East 3, announced the Minister of Economy Energy and Tourism, Delian Dobrev on TV7 on Sunday.

The inspection has already detected a significant difference reaching up to BGN 10 between the selling prices of the limestone produced by Kaolin JSC to the private and public TPPs. According to Dobrev, 3-4% of the prime cost of electricity is determined by the limestone price. Based on his calculations, if there is a difference of BGN 10 in the price per tonne of limestone, the difference in selling prices will form an income of BGN 20 mln for Kaolin JSC. Therefore, according to Dobrev, the state is interested in checking whether the market price could be lowered. "The price of limestone is covered by us all. If we start paying carbon emissions, these will be charged on the price of electricity for the end user," explained the Minister.

It is a fact that the costly limestone is purchased by Ivo Prokopiev's company Kaolin JSC, admitted the SEWRC Head Angel Semerdjiev.

The contracts on the last concessions for limestone extraction of Prokopiev's company were signed by the former Economy Minister, Traicho Traikov, who owns shares in Kaolin JSC. The investigation of TV 7 established that the Minister's report on granting a concession to Kaolin JSC, a company where he is a shareholder himself, is more than generous. It stipulated that Kaolin JSC will pay a concession fee of 4% on the company's turnover for the production of 350,000 tonnes of raw material per year, or BGN 287,000. This means that Kaolin's turnover should reach BGN 7.127 mln. According to geologists, given these parameters of the decision of the Council of Ministers (CM), our country itself is defrauded. Subsequently, the CM's decision was suspended by the court and failed to enter into force as it is being appealed by environmentalists.

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