Bulgarian MPs will discuss Monday the introduction of a tax on the revenues of all types of electricity producers.

In a Sunday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Yavor Kuyumdzhiev, MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Energy Committee, explained that the meeting would be attended by representatives of several other parliamentary committees, the National Electric Company (NEK), the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), etc.

He noted that the discussion would determine the tax to be levied on the different types of electricity producers after the Parliament approved a 20% tax on the revenues of photovoltaic plants and wind farms.

Kyuymdzhiev announced that the tax rates would differ, depending on the financial burden which the company placed on the energy system and on society. The bigger the financial burden, the higher the tax, he added.

He explained that the introduction of a tax on the revenues of all types of power producers would convince protesting renewable energy producers that they had not been expressly singled out for penalty.

"The GERB government created the conditions to set up so many wind farms and photovoltaic plants. It is difficult to solve a problem which was being created during a period of four years in six months," Kuyumdzhiev pointed out, as cited by dnevnik.bg.

Regarding the ongoing dispute about the compatibility of the intergovernmental agreements for the South Stream gas pipeline project with EU law, he said that Russian Gazprom had introduced a provision saying that a part of the pipeline capacity would be reserved for other suppliers.

The 20% tax on revenues of energy producers, which was approved by Parliament on Thursday, was met with sharp criticism by industry representatives.

In a media statement, the Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association (BPVA) defined the decision for the new tax as scandalous, opaque, discriminatory, and illegal.

In a Saturday interview for Darik radio, Kenneth Lefkowitz, Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association, claimed that Bulgaria had ruined its image on an international scale with the introduction of the tax and it had become a banana republic in Europe.

Meglena Rusenova, Chair of the Managing Board of the Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association, claimed that the plans of the government to levy a tax on all other types of producers did not solve the problem with the discriminatory treatment of renewable energy plants.

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