Bulgaria’s Revenue Agency and Customs will not merge, for now

Bulgarian Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova has signaled that at this stage the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and the Customs Agency will not merge. The idea for their unification was revived last year and was expected to come into force at the beginning of this year. To this end, former interim Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova had already laid out the necessary legislative changes as part of her ill-fated draft budget for 2025.

At this stage, no cuts or changes to the status of the National Revenue Agency and the Customs Agency are planned,” the current finance minister said during a hearing in parliament.

Petkova added that these institutions will work "as they are meant to" and that no layoffs are planned for employees from both structures.

The minister pointed out that revenue agencies must have stability, resilience, and peace of mind in order to be able to do their job properly, especially in the current situation, in which, in her opinion, we are facing an extremely great challenge and so these agencies must work as efficiently as possible.

We are currently conducting analyses and studies regarding experiences from other countries, making a clear risk assessment of what would happen if structural changes were made at such a moment," Petkova commented.

The Finance Minister congratulated the employees of the National Revenue Agency and the Customs Agency, because, in her words, they had done an exceptionally good job last year. She assured them that they should feel calm regarding their jobs.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov