Procedures for receiving goods from European Union countries and non-EU states in Bulgaria will be significantly simplified as of January 25 2010 a result of a pilot project between Bulgarian Posts and Customs Agency, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily said.

This project is a reaction to the public outcry caused by a story published on Dnevnik.bg website on January 8 2010 by Elenko Elenkov, who described what he had to go through when collecting a box of t-shirts that he had ordered from the US.

The pilot project for now will concentrate on goods shipped to Sofia, as Sofia Customs processes about 60 per cent of all the goods arriving from abroad. It is the first step towards introducing a national centre for processing international shipments.

The changes

As of January 25 2010, goods arriving from EU states will not go through the Customs Agency, as was the practice until now, but will be sent to the recipients' addresses or to their respective local post offices. There will be no charge for this.

Goods that are worth less than 15 euro, for which VAT is not due, will be sent directly to recipients' local post offices. This includes goods sent as gifts worth no more than 45 euro.

Goods which cost more than 15 euro but less than 150 euro, for which VAT is due, will be processed at one desk. Recipients of such goods no longer have to register for an Economic Operation Registration and Identification (EORI) number and the VAT gets automatically billed.

Another new feature is the notice that recipients will get from the post office about the shipments addressed to them for collection. The notice will include information such as the type of the shipment, the VAT due and all other fees, and the country the parcel was sent from. Bulgarian Posts will also send a list of all the documents that recipients must present to the Customs Agency for the clearance procedure.