Bulgarian villagers protest EU-imposed excise tax on brandy

(KRAYNICI) - An EU-imposed excise tax on the production of traditional brandy sparked protests in Bulgaria this week with villagers deserting licensed distilleries and vowing to prepare their 'rakia' in clandestine basement facilities.

"Why do we, poor village people, have to pay for entry into the European Union with our rakia?" Emil Vuchkov from the southwestern village of Kraynici told AFP.

Vuchkov works at the only licensed facility in the village, where people used to extract their traditional brandy by distilling the vapours of boiling fruit and grapes.

But the so-called 'rakia house' with its eight furnaces and copper stills is now deserted.

Since Bulgaria joined the European Union on January 1, Vuchkov has been forced to collect from his clients a special excise tax required by Brussels for boiling ethyl alcohol.

"People have grape marc ready and want to come and boil rakia. But when they hear about the tax they say they will distill the alcohol at home in makeshift stills made from old washing machines, Russian tea samovars and all kinds of pots," said the head of the Kraynici cooperative, Lazar Zaharinov.

The cooperative, which owns the licensed distillery, must collect 2.20 Bulgarian leva (over one euro/1.30 dollars) for every litre of rakia extracted and 4.40 leva per litre if the amount is over 30 litres.

Customs officers also tour villages and fine every legal 'rakia house' owner who does not observe the new regulations. At least four men have already been sanctioned.

"Are you from customs? Because if you are, we are not telling you the way to the distillery. We are not giving up our rakia," a group of elderly women in Kraynici told AFP.

"People around here are poor and after toiling in their fruit gardens and vineyards all year long, their only joy and means of living is the rakia they get out of these fruit or grapes," Zaharinov said.

People also have to pay for sugar and wood, so producing brandy is not profitable if you add the excise tax, he added. Good illegal rakia is sold at the price of 8-9 leva (about 5 euros) per litre, while the big alcohol companies sell their product even cheaper.

"If you add up all the expenses, people are practically buying their rakia at market prices," Zaharinov said, adding that 200 people in Kraynici had already signed a special petition to parliament to "either abolish the tax or at least introduce it gradually."

Meanwhile, several hundred other villagers dumped grape marc and brandy on the streets of Katuntsi, a village near the Greek border, on Tuesday to protest the tax and vowed to gather in front of parliament on February 14 if it is not abolished.

February 14, or Saint Triphon's Day, is celebrated in Bulgaria as the traditional holiday of the vineyards and wine.

"Making rakia is a Bulgarian tradition. And this excise is scorching. It forces us to either break the law or abandon the production of rakia," the mayor of the southern village of Kapatovo, Ognyan Kukov, told bTV television Wednesday.

He and a couple of villagers were shown boiling rakia at night in a clandestine basement distillery.

The villagers' protests divided parliament this week with opposition deputy Yane Yanev insisting that "parliament postpone the introduction of the excise tax until January 1, 2009 as in neighbouring Romania."

But parliamentary spokesman Georgy Pirinski told journalists Tuesday: "Bulgaria already managed to get the maximum possible lowering of the tax rate" and the tax cannot be abolished.

Parliament is expected the review the issue when it convenes after the winter break Thursday.