The lack of political will was the main reason why the bulk of licensing regulations in Bulgaria had not been abolished yet, State Administration Minister Nikolai Vassilev told Parliament's anti-corruption committee on April 17 2008.
That was seen at every level but most of all at the local level, he was quoted as saying by mediapool.bg. Vassilev said he relied on municipalities to ease the process of licensing regulations, but there was no real effect for now.
Since 2003, nothing had been done to ease doing business in Bulgaria, Vassilev said and warned that unless urgent measures were taken, the Government was in danger of accomplishing nothing in what is left of its term.
One such measure would be the launch of an administrative register, which would list with all licensing regulations. The launch should happen by the end of 2008, he said.
According to Kamen Kolev, deputy chairman of Bulgarian Industrial Association the licensing regulations should not be abolished as a whole, but substantially decreased. Licensing regulations helped decrease the level of grey economy sector, he said.
A serious problem, according to Kolev, was the fact that municipalities had different fees for similar services and licensing regulations. One could pay between 50 and 600 leva for the same licensing regulation depending on the municipality.
This is a direct result of the financial decentralisation that started this year. Currently, municipalities are given the right to raise, but not decrease the fees for the services they provide. According to Kolev, some municipality offered licensing regulations as services, hence the difference in the money asked for it.
According to Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov, just 392 licensing regulations out of 1935 were in compliance with the law. Their bulk, a total of 1275 licensing regulations, have been introduced by municipalities.
Analysts have claimed for years that the high number of licensing regulations is a source for corruption practises and the problem needs urgent solution.
