„We Continue the Change“ introduces three bills to the National Assembly, which introduce a contribution on the transit of Russian gas, solve the problem with the requirements for bioethanol in gasoline fuels and reduce the administrative burden for business by postponing the introduction of new requirements for sustainability reports by enterprises.
The changes to the Law on Control and Implementation of the Applied Restrictive Measures in View of Russia's Actions Destabilizing the Situation in Ukraine, provide for the introduction of energy contributions in the amount of 20 leva per megawatt-hour for the import and transit of natural gas originating from Russia. The goal is to guarantee the country's energy independence and increase budget revenues. According to calculations, this measure will bring about 3 billion into the budget from the budget. BGN per year, which will not be paid by Bulgarian businesses and citizens. They can be spent on policies in the field of healthcare, education and other priority areas.
Amendments to the Renewable Energy Act include ethers produced from biomass, which were omitted in the latest amendments to this law and create a risk of a crisis in the gasoline market from March 1, 2025, as operators cannot meet the requirements for blending gasoline fuels with bioethanol. The Bulgarian Oil and Gas Association has raised the alarm about this problem.
The third bill is for amendments to the Accounting Act, which postpones by one year the implementation of European directives introducing the requirement for additional reporting by enterprises in relation to sustainability. The reason is that at present there is still a lack of sufficient practical experience in the implementation of sustainability standards both at the European and global levels. This significantly hinders the collection of data and the preparation of non-financial reports by enterprises for the implementation of the so-called ESG policies. Business in Bulgaria, due to the listed objective reasons, cannot prepare in time for the introduction of the new requirements for non-financial reporting. To date, the directive has been transposed by 18 member states, while another 11 have not yet introduced it into their legislation. Among them is Germany, where there are strong calls for a revision of these requirements. This is evident from a reference to the Accountancy Europe (AE) website: https://accountancyeurope.eu/publications/csrd-transposition-tracker/. This problem was reported by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.