Business Leaders: No Cash Payments Over 10 000 Leva

Payments for sales and purchases of goods, services and property worth over BGN 10 000 to be carried out only by bank suggests BBLF in an open letter to Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev signed by Chairman Maxim Behar.

The letter suggesting law amendments to be introduced to reduce corruption in the country has been also sent to Georgi Pirinski, Chairman of Parliament and to Boyko Velikov, Chairman of the parliamentary Commission for Fight against Corruption.

The move came to fulfil a decision of the organization's General Meeting and it was shared with other business organizations within the UN Global Compact.

The former Bulgarian government has vowed its determination to introduce the banking transfers for deals over BGN 10 000, but so far that task has not been fulfilled. BBLF, however, believes that in view of Bulgaria's future EU entry this suggestion "provides the country with a good opportunity to specify the measures to fight corruption through legislative amendments".

The implementation of such a measure would be an efficient instrument for the state administration, the economic police, the prosecution and other state authorities, the business leaders pointed out. It would also allow the tracing of the transactions, which in many economy sectors are used to avoid taxes payments.

In his letter BBLF chairman Maxim Behar also recalled that there was a similar practice in Bulgaria, which concerned payment of over BGN 5,000. It was terminated due to the unstable currency rate and lack of enough banks entering Bulgaria's market. Today, however, the conditions are different and Bulgaria's banking system has been considerably improved, which turns that measure into a possible and an advisable step.