The cheapest for the pocket is to live and work in Vratsa, and the most expensive even in view of the higher incomes – in Sofia and Plovdiv, reports “24 chasa”. The statistics were made on the basis of a ratio between the average salary in 13 areas and the prices of 15 goods and services – from dinner for two to rents and taxi prices to hairdressing services and a kilo of potatoes.
In Montana, because of the low prices, it is the most profitable for people who rely on the minimum wage, because it is the same throughout the country – BGN 933.
Vratsa is the only regional city outside the capital, in which as of December this year the average salary had exceeded BGN 2,000 – it was BGN 2,052. And at the same time, the prices of goods and services there are quite low – the city is in third place after Montana and Smolyan in terms of low prices.
It turns out that in Bulgaria there is a big difference in prices by region, especially for services. For example, if in Veliko Tarnovo the dry cleaning of a winter jacket made of synthetic material costs BGN 14, then in Kardzhali the same thing costs BGN 30. This is more than twice as expensive. And the difference in average salaries in the two cities is not that big.
The same is the case with hairdressing services: hair dyeing and styling with a hairdryer costs BGN 30 in Pazardzhik, while in Varna the prices range between BGN 80 and BGN 100.
A short men’s haircut can cost BGN 10 in Pazardzhik and BGN 30 in Varna.
Immediately, some will say that everything is relative. That’s right, but still the cheapest is the cheapest, and the most expensive is the most expensive!
Things are not only based on the fact that Varna is a tourist city and much bigger than Pazardzhik, because even in Kardzhali hair dyeing costs about BGN 80.
With this type of service, the prices depend a lot on the costs, and it is no secret that precisely in the hairdressing business, income is widely concealed and receipts are not issued.
This also applies to all types of services where a quick check cannot tell how many customers have passed so far.
If someone does, for example, 10 massages per shift, but has issued only 4 receipts, the tax authorities can hardly find anything wrong.
Because the customers have already left and there is no way to tell how many people were served.
In the case of food, especially if we look at the prices in large hypermarkets, the differences by region are negligible, or even non-existent. Large retail chains have a special policy to maintain the same prices in their locations throughout Bulgaria, even when they put something on sale.
In the case of prices that are determined on a regional basis, the discrepancies are rather large.
For example, the ticket for a single journey by public transport in Varna costs BGN 2, and in Plovdiv – only BGN 1, given that both places serve large territories and there are many lines.
But these are local government decisions that are made not only for economic cost-benefit considerations, but purely political ones as well.
The situation is almost the same with taxi services, where the local authority sets a minimum and maximum price, and each carrier decides exactly how many rides. Perhaps it is logical that in Montana 1 kilometer according to the daily rate costs only 55 cents, but in Pazardzhik there are by no means richer people, and there the same thing costs almost 6 times more – 3 BGN. Moreover, the patent tax for 1 taxi car in Montana is BGN 400 per year, and in Pazardzhik BGN 300.
But consumption also has its say here – if there are too many yellow cars in Montana, and not so much demand, it is natural that they will drive cheaply.
For comparison, the highest patent tax for taxi activity in Bulgaria is paid in the municipalities of the Southern Black Sea coast – there this tax is generally over BGN 600 per year, and in Sozopol it is even BGN 1,000. In the capital it is BGN 850 per year.
It’s hard to see any logic in inner city rents other than that it’s relatively more expensive in bigger cities.
But they are also usually university centers, and where there is a higher education institution, many accommodations are offered and rented, and the prices are rather high. For example, in the capital, the area around the Medical Academy has always had rents almost equal to those in “Lozenets”, “Ivan Vazov” and the top center. Because relatively many foreign students also study in this higher education institution.
By the same logic, in Varna, Burgas and especially in Plovdiv, renting a furnished apartment in the center is the most expensive. Veliko Tarnovo is approaching almost the same prices. But this is not the case in Kardzhali, Smolyan and Pazardzhik.
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