Members of the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee adopted the texts for the second reading of the Offshore Companies Bill. The bill regulates the economic and financial relations of the state with companies registered in jurisdictions with preferential tax regime. The bill was submitted by MPs Delyan Peevski and Yordan Tsonev. The committee approved change in the bill’s title and included “ and persons linked to the companies”.

The basic purpose of the bill is to restrict the access to, the use  and the management of public funds  on the part of offshore companies, the persons linked to these companies and their real owners when it contradicts public interest, as well as to prevent tax evasion.

The bill bans offshore companies from acquiring ownership over lands and forests owned by the state, from acquiring assets in state and municipal companies, from establishing and participating in companies exercising financial auditing, independent appraisals, from exercising activities in the field of renewable energy sources.

The budget committee adopted changes in the administrative penalties to include offshore companies which publish periodicals in spite of the ban at the amount of BGN 100 000 to BGN 500 000.