Journal Article

Assessment of the administrative burdens for businesses in Bulgaria according to the national legislation related to the European Union internal market

Silvia Trifonova, Atanas Atanassov, Anton Pramatarov, Jasmina Saraivanova

2017

Overview

The key objective of the paper is to identify and assess the administrative burdens for businesses in Bulgaria according to the selected national laws related to the EU Internal Market. The study relies on objective data and analytical frameworks with a view to identify and assess the information obligations stemming from selected laws and regulations, including national rules implementing or transposing European legislation. This is an important step in strengthening Bulgaria’s national policy on better regulation for businesses. Information obligations are those arising from regulation to provide information and data to the public sector or third parties. Administrative burdens represent the “extra” administrative costs linked to collecting and providing information that businesses would not normally have to do in the absence of a legal obligation. While regulation is important and necessary, these additional costs represent a burden for businesses. It is a burden for business both in terms of money and time, which diverts resources from productive investments and generally discourages entrepreneurship. The methodology used in the paper is based on the Standard Cost Model for Estimating Administrative Costs established for assessing administrative costs imposed by the EU legislation. The paper is developed taking into account the findings of the OECD and the European Commission. The study outlines the results of the administrative costs and administrative burdens for businesses in Bulgaria of totally measured 742 information obligations (IOs) in 16 national laws and regulations to them in 9 selected priority areas during 2013. Even though the study is limited to specific legal acts and to an assessment of costs to business, the results are helpful in understanding the mechanisms by which the administrative costs and administrative burdens accrue. All IOs identified and verified in the paper, related both to national rules implementing or transposing European legislation, are distinguished by specific laws and by specific priority areas. The data collection methods include interviews with business entities (field work) and expert assessments. The results obtained from the study show that more than half of all IOs examined in the paper are concentrated in three selected national laws – the Medicinal Products in Human Medicine Act, the Law on Statistics and the Law on Technical Requirements for Products and Conformity Assessment. More than half of all IOs are associated with implementation of national requirements related to the EU Internal Market. As concerns the value of the administrative burden, the highest share of administrative burden of all identified and evaluated IOs is observed under the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act and the Law on Support for Farmers. The lowest share of the administrative burden of all IOs is found under those laws where the identified and assessed IOs are only a few (the Law on Social Assistance, the Bulgarian Chamber of Builders Act, the Independent Assessors Act and the Cadastre and Land Registry Act).

• Publisher: University of Split, Faculty of Economics
• Subject: Administrative burdens for businesses / Administrative costs / Bulgarian laws related to the EU internal market / Standard Cost Model, Information obligations for businesses