In 2023, the state managed to collect BGN 217 million from the "excess profit" tax imposed on companies in the sectors, related to oil, natural gas, coal and petroleum products. These revenues went into the state budget, and the collected tax was introduced to tax companies that made excess profits due to the increased prices of energy resources after the start of the war in Ukraine.
This became clear after Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova answered a question from MP Martin Dimitrov about the income from additional taxation of companies that made excess profits due to the sharp rise in oil, natural gas and fuel prices after the start of the war in Ukraine , specified "Now".
The joint contribution
In 2022, the National Assembly introduced the so-called "joint contribution" for part of the energy companies. This measure was adopted by the European Commission and obliges the countries in the European Union to impose a 33% additional tax on companies whose profits in 2022 and 2023 exceed by more than 20% the average levels of the last four years. However, Bulgaria raised this additional tax to 50% for the last quarter of 2023 in order to collect more money from the Russian company "Lukoil", which made significant profits during this period.
Revenues and companies subject to taxation
According to the Ministry of Finance, just over 30 companies in the country were affected by the solidarity contribution, but half of them were at a loss and did not pay anything. The huge part of the amount of BGN 217 million is expected to come from "Lukoil Neftohim" and "Lukoil Bulgaria".
The Ministry of Finance did not provide a detailed breakdown of revenues from the various activities - oil and oil products, natural gas and coal, due to the risk of breaching statistical secrecy. In some sectors, there are fewer than three economic players or one of them holds more than 85% of the total value of receipts.
Expectations and reality
The collected amount of BGN 217 million is much more modest than the expectations of several governments that changed during this period. They hoped "Lukoil" to transfer between BGN 600 and 700 million in tax. The solidarity contribution is separate from the contribution that "Lukoil" makes to the fund "Security of the electric power system".
The law of one penny
A special law, known as "the Delyan Dobrev one leva law", imposed on "Lukoil Neftohim" contributions to the "Security of the electric power system" fund; because of the difference in the price of cheap Russian oil and the price of Brent oil. This money was supposed to finance the transport costs of vulnerable groups of the population. Despite expectations that the proceeds would be at least 1 billion BGN, the state managed to collect only 113 million BGN.
The reason for this difference is the ineffective implementation of the law, which blocked the collection of the fee for almost the entire year 2023. The government had to get approval from the European Commission for the introduction of additional taxation, but Galab Donev's office did not take the necessary actions for months. In the end, "Lukoil Neftohim" paid installments for four months - from December 2023 to March 2024, when it stopped working with Russian oil.
The refinery is currently appealing the amount of monthly contributions to the energy fund, which is delaying the launch of the transportation assistance program.