Hotel owners from Sofia were declaring a small number of occupied rooms to avoid tourism taxation.

Each hotel has to pay one lev per the accommodation of a client for one night, Novinar newspaper reported. According to the head of the municipal organisation for tourism service Stoyan Lazarov 50 per cent of the taxes were not paid.

Inspectors were denied the right to check the number of visits and accommodations, Lazarov said. Some of the information is available only for hotel staff due to confidentiality.

A number of luxurious hotels registered no annual activity. All hotels that register activity below 50 per cent are registering losses, Lazarov said.

An online register needs to be created, including descriptions of the services hotels offer, Lazarov said.

Over the past year Sofia collected 1.5 million leva from hotel taxes. The sum should reach at least 2.5 million leva annually, Lazarov said.

Only 20 per cent of all Bulgarians know their, Eurobarometer research conducted in 2006 shows.