Mariana Kukusheva is furious with Dyankov: God forbid the blind see! – Markets

“If the topic of returning the 20% VAT on bread and flour continues, which was raised by analysts, including former finance minister Simeon Dyankov, the price of bread will increase and will cost over BGN 3, and this price will continue to grow weekly” , said the president of the National Union of Bakers and Confectioners Mariana Kukusheva.

According to her, only the consumer benefits from the zero VAT on bread.

A few days ago, the former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Dyankov proposed that in the next budget, the VAT for bread should be 20% again, so that there are no additional excess profits, since, according to him, the price of wheat has fallen.

Kukusheva: Bread will cost more than BGN 3 if 20% VAT is returned

She asked why Simeon Dyankov does not have a similar attitude towards other products that also have 0% VAT. “I invite Simeon Dyankov to come for at least one week as a night shift observer in a bakery enterprise and keep accounts in order to calculate how much the Bulgarian bread producer earns and whether he earns at all.” And he added: “God forbid that the blind see.”

“Simeon Dyankov does not have any statistics, and I would correct him that the price of wheat is currently twice as low as last year at the same time when the war started, the corridors were closed, we had a lot of wheat and we sold it at a good price price of external traders. In contrast, at the moment we have a lot of wheat at a very low price, but millers are stockpiling as early as August, September in a situation of inflation and imminent war,” said Marina Kukusheva.

According to her, the current low price of wheat cannot immediately affect the price of bread.

“We have a huge problem – the payment of labor. It is difficult to find people to do daily, night and holiday work. The cost of labor that we are trying to increase may actually lead to an adjustment in the price of bread, but that is for each baker to decide,” she further explained.

From July 1, 2022, bread has become cheaper between 17 and 26%, Kukusheva said.