The Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company – the state entity managing Bulgaria's Black Sea and Danube ports – has introduced long-awaited electronic billing services, the Transport Ministry has announced.

The e-invoices are valid for Bulgarian ports as of December 1, 2011, the Ministry of Transport, IT, and Communications said Wednesday.

"The electronic invoice is a valid, electronically signed tax document, and is fully identical to the paper-based invoices. It meets the requirements of the Electronic Document and Signature Act, the Accounting Act, and the VAT Act," the Ministry explained.

The electronic billing is supposed to make the payment process easier, cheaper, and less time-consuming. The new electronic invoices of the Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company can be obtained for free after filling a request form on the websites of the company www.bgports.bg and www.vtmis.bg.

"The electronic invoice provides the client to receive, review, confirm, approve, or dispute online their billing information... The legal requirement for preserving the paper-based archives for a long time leads to high costs. The electronic archive is reducing the expenses and creating an opportunity for easier access to information regardless of how far back in time one would like to go," said the Bulgarian Transport Ministry.

Bulgaria has been looking to boost the international freight traffic through its Black Sea and Danube ports – such as Port Varna, Port Burgas, Port Ruse, Port Lom, Port Vidin – and the introduction of electronic invoices is viewed as a measure to held achieve this end.

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