An unexpected surprise with the euro, which leaves a bitter taste, revealed lawyers and economists. Changes to the Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems for the adoption of the euro appear to contradict the already adopted Law on the introduction of the euro, as in theory they round the Bulgarian lev, commented lawyers with extensive experience in monetary policy legislation, quoted by “Trud” .
The controversial texts have been published for public discussion on the Strategy platform, but probably there will be objections to them and proposals to refine the texts, in which 100 BGN becomes directly 50 euros, financiers with parliamentary practice also admitted.
How will it be converted? With a 2:1 conversion, the user is in a better position, the calculations show. But it is a matter of interpretations and voting in the plenary hall whether we will be in a more advantageous position with the actual introduction of the euro.
In the new Law on the introduction of the euro, which was promulgated less than a month ago in the State Gazette, it is stated that “the conversion from BGN to EUR is carried out by dividing the numerical value in BGN by the full numerical value of the official exchange rate expressed with six digits with all five decimal places”.
Moreover, this text rests on European Regulation 1103/97, and “the amount obtained is rounded to the second decimal place based on the third decimal place”.
Experts commented that the leva-euro revaluation should take place at an exchange rate of 1.95583 leva-euro, but in the texts presented for public discussion, a “round revaluation” was used for convenience.
Specialists with many years of experience in financial institutions were adamant that “such rounding hangs in the air”, but probably occurs because of circulating instructions between institutions that were not done maliciously.
The transitional and final provisions of the Law on the introduction of the euro do not propose changes to legal provisions that specify specific amounts or values in BGN, such as fees, rates, fines and property sanctions in the administrative-penal provisions of the laws.
But lawyers commented that in such cases the “Principle of automaticity” applies, according to which values indicated in levs in existing legal instruments are considered values in euros when applying the official exchange rate and in accordance with the rules for currency conversion and rounding. defined in the bill.
Experts pointed out that these provisions could subsequently be adapted to the new currency at the initiative of the Bulgarian departments, but without putting the persons in a less favorable position.
Apart from the controversial changes, the texts of the Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems provide that from the date of introduction of the euro in the Republic of Bulgaria, the operation of the BNB-operated real-time gross settlement payment system RINGS will be suspended. The spread of instant payments in euros will be ensured.
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