In case of violations, investors will return state subsidies to the Bulgarian revenue agency

Investors who receive public subsidies through Class A and Class B investment certificates, but then fail to fulfill their obligations under their contracts, will have to return the funds to the Bulgarian state. This is evident from the text of amendment proposals to the Investment Promotion Act, prepared by the country’s Ministry of Innovation and Growth and published for public discussion.

The amendments create a mechanism by which, if an investor does not fulfill or violates the conditions and obligations under the concluded contracts for the provision of state aid incentives, then the aid becomes a state claim and is subject to being returned.

In the event of an established breach of obligations, the entire amount of the aid becomes payable to the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency (NRA) in accordance with its Tax and Insurance Procedural Code.

The changes make it possible, upon a proposal of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, for the Bulgarian government to be able to allocate funds for the training of people appointed to new jobs created as a result of class A and class B investments. This will be the case when the investments are made in high-tech activities or in the more economically neglected regions of the country.

Screening of foreign investments

With the amendment proposals, the Bulgarian state gets the opportunity to specify and narrow the range of areas of activity for foreign investments that are subject to screening, and this can be done with a bylaw such as the Regulations for the Implementation of the Acts.

The screening in question was introduced at the suggestion of the DPS political party as a method of combating the "growth of malicious investments on a global scale, especially Russian investments".

As a result, an Interdepartmental Council was created to consider investments related to security and public order in areas such as critical infrastructure, energy, transportation, health care, defense, finance, and telecommunications. Now the Bulgarian government is given the right to unilaterally exclude some of these spheres.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov