September 25 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Friday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
DNEVNIK
- A cap on pensions, currently set at 700 levs per month, will be scrapped from January 1, 2010, Deputy Labour Minister Hristina Mitreva said. The new regulation concerns only people, retiring after 2009, or some 3,000 only next year. This will increase the item for pensions of the National Social Security Institute by up to 5.0 million levs next year, Mitreva said. The cap on monthly pension will remain the same for all those that have retired by the end of 2009.
- A Bulgarian court has levied a distraint on real estate, stocks, assets in companies and bank accounts worth a combined 143 million levs owned by local energy businessman Hristo Kovachki, the daily reported. This is the higher ever distraint levied in Bulgaria, as well was the highest ever guarantee - 300,000 levs - asked by the court. Kovachki was accused of evading 16 million levs worth of taxes in the 2005-2008 period.
- German REWE Group’s supermarket chain Billa plans to open 17 stores in Bulgaria by the end of the year, bringing the total number of the chain to 65, the general director of Billa for Bulgaria and Romania Emil Stefanov said. This year the company opened 8 stores countrywide. Last year the strategy of the company was to have stores in small towns, including with up to 15,000 people, but due to the crisis Billa postponed the opening in some of these towns for the second half of 2010, Diyana Todorova, general operating director said.
KLASA
- Revenue from foreigners for ecological, rural and adventure tourism in Bulgaria is between 13 and 15 million euro since the beginning of the year, the chairman of the Alternative Tourism Association, Lyubomir Popyordanov said. This is some 1.5% of the total tourist revenue, he said.
STANDART
- The road bed of the Trakia motorway will be kept in secret, the Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev said. The idea is the government to avoid higher budget spending for compensations for the land where the motorway will pass, he said. Currently there is a trend entrepreneurs to buy land where mayor roads will pass and to sell it to the state at very high prices. The ministry will work out the construction project for the remaining stretches of Trakia in the next two years, with budget spending on the activity estimated at 11 million levs per year, he said.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)