The third operation to prevent illegal import of excise goods, conducted at border check points Kapitan Andreevo, Kulata and Kalotina in February, ended.The operation was carried out by the Ministry of Finance (Bulgarian Customs Agency and the National Revenue Agency) in cooperation with the National Service for Combating Organised Crime. The Crown Agents assisted with planning and implementation of the exercise.

The main aim of the operation was to reduce smuggling of excisable goods from the duty-free shops at the border checkpoints by: examinations of people crossing the border, aimed at confiscation of illegally imported cigarettes; and constant invigilation of the duty-free shops. For that purpose, the Mobile Assurance Teams of the BCA and teams of the National Revenue Agency made round-the-clock examinations and invigilated the duty-free shops at the three border crossings.

A total of 1439 challenges of travelers passing through the border crossings were made.
Violations were detected in 55.02% of the challenges at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint. Compared to the previous exercise in January 2006, the attempts for smuggling of excisable goods at that border checkpoint have tripled. 21.84% of the challenges at the Kulata border checkpoint were successful, which, compared to the previous exercise, means that the smuggling attempts there are decreasing. Kalotina keeps almost the same rate of smuggling attempts – violations were detected in 25.65% of the challenges.

A total of 422 300 pieces of cigarettes were confiscated during the exercise, and thus losses of 46 453 BGN to the state budget were prevented.

Data for the turnover of the duty-free shops during the exercise was collected. These figures were compared to their average turnovers for a period of one month prior to the beginning of the operation. It was determined that while being invigilated the average turnover of some of the duty-free shops decreased significantly. The average changes of the total turnover of all of duty-free shops at each of the three checkpoints were:

Kapitan Andreevo
Inward lane (3 shops) -1.44%
Outward lane (3 shops) -25.16%

Kulata
Inward lane (none)
Outward lane (3 shops) - 26.94%

Kalotina
Inward lane (3 shops) +22.71%
Outward lane (4 shops) +4.68%

Press Centre
Ministry of Finance
Bulgaria