BCCI: Some 80% of businesses are not content with the Administration

In the outgoing year, some 80% of business representatives in Bulgaria complained of bad administration services and 76% of entrepreneurs suffered from frequent changes of regulations. The data came from the traditional BCCI's study on the business environment and investment conditions in the country. According to it, more than half of the companies complained of corruption in public institutions and competition by the informal economy. The data showing that more than 64% of companies had trouble finding staff with the right qualifications/education is worrying, bearing in mind that there were almost 400,000 unemployed in the second quarter of 2012.

Compared to 2011's results, when BCCI studied business barriers, no significant improvement was reported. A greater reduction is only observed in the number of firms that had difficulties in access to finance. The reasons for this fact are primarily associated with weaker investment activity and demand for loans by businesses, rather than facilitated lending (credit growth on an annual basis by September 2012 was only 3.3%). The business conditions which received the highest scores in 2012 include macroeconomic and fiscal stability in the country, infrastructure and the overall tax burden. On the other hand, companies are most dissatisfied with the judiciary system and the fees they pay.

In 2012, as part of the studied conditions for business and investment, the vast majority of companies (59%) believed that there is an improvement only in infrastructure, compared to 2011. According to BCCI's members, the greatest deterioration that occurred in 2012, compared to 2011, was in terms of fees that companies pay (according to 65%) and legislative environment and regulations (according to 52%). In institutional terms, 14% of businesses saw an improvement in tax administration activities in 2012, compared to 2011, while 7% reported positive changes in the work of the State Administration.

Currently, BCCI insists on an abolition of the tax on dividends and that sole traders be taxed at a 10% rate instead of 15%. Despite the enormous intercompany indebtedness, Bulgarian businesses do not refer to court because the judicial system does not work well. Evidence of this is the fact that, for the last four years, the number of cases decided at the Court of Arbitration Chamber has tripled, Tsvetan Simeonov explained. Huge creditors, such as suppliers of gas, electricity, central heating, have uncollected receivables and do not resort to the judicial system, where cases will be protracted for at least 3-4 years, and their costs are huge, Simeonov added.

The labour force remains a big problem for Bulgarian businesses. While there are some 400,000 unemployed, 64% of business-people complain that they cannot find the right employees.

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