November 5 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
PARI
- Tax on gambling will rise to 12% from 10% under amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act approved on first reading by the Bulgarian parliament on Wednesday. The new tax, to go into force from January 1, 2010, is expected to generate 12 million levs in budget revenue, deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told the daily.
- Bulgaria’s state-run railways BDZ may file for bankruptcy if it fails to reschedule the repayment of some 140 million levs in debt to its creditors, deputy Transport Minister Kamen Kichev said. The company has to repay 37 million levs by the end of December and a further 101 million levs by the end of 2010. BDZ will shed 1330 jobs by the end of this year.
- Housing prices in Bulgaria fell 12.51% in the first nine months of 2009, Bulgarian real estate company Foros reported. The price of new construction fell 13.75%, while the price of pre-fabricated apartments built until the 1990s dropped the least, by 11.61%. Furnished and luxury residential property prices declined by 13.91% and 12.34% respectively.
- Only the IT services segment scored growth in Bulgaria’s IT sector in 2009, the chairmain of the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT) Teodor Zahov said. Hardware sales fell 30%, while the sales of software companies dropped by 10%.
DNEVNIK
- Russia wants control over decision making in the project company that will manage the future South Stream gas pipeline designed to carry Russian natural gas to western Europe via Bulgaria, the daily reported. Russian gas giant Gazprom stated its demands before state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding group last week.
(1 euro = 1.9558 levs)