“Ministry of Agriculture and Food supports the idea of lifting the VAT on donated food products because this will stimulate the producers to donate the food instead of destroying it,”said Minister of Agriculture and Food Desislava Taneva a meeting with Ombudsman Maya Manolova, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency Dr Damyan Iliev and representatives of the food industry.
The meeting took place at the initiative of Maya Manolova and was held today in the building of the MAF. The parties involved discussed the proposal for lifting the VAT on donated food products. The initiative is part of Ms Manolova’s Easter Every Day initiative. All interested parties agreed to meet again in September and start discussing concrete legislative amendments that would allow lifting the VAT on donated food.
“It is correct and honest is to get acquainted Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov with the idea and to convince him that the risks are really minimal. He should make the relevant estimates in order our proposals to enter the budget program for 2017, "said Maya Manolova.
Minister Desislava Taneva presented the new draft of the Food Act, where for the first time rules for food banking and donating food are defined. She pointed out that the benefits of lifting the VAT on donated food are for the whole society - for the needy people who will receive various food every day and for food manufacturers because they will not waste energy and labor of farmers and business for food processing.
According to the data of the Bulgarian Food Bank, 670,000 tons of food products are destroyed every year.