Grain Growers Block Filling Stations to Protest against Government Requirement

Sofia, July 24 (BTA) - Grain growers blocked public filling
stations across Bulgaria on Friday by driving their tractors and
 harvesters en masse into the stations to be refuelled. The
demonstration was a protest against a government requirement for
 grain producers to install cash registers and fuel gauges in
their in-house filling stations. The requirement is intended to
curb fuel smuggling.

Grain growers say that the government measure only creates
unnecessary inconvenience. They insist that the sale of fuel for
 farming purposes should continue to be reported only by
conventional paperwork.

In the Danubian city of Rousse, farmers demonstrated at three
filling stations, said Krassimir Vulev, President of the Danube
Grain Regional Farmers' Association.

In Sofia, a BTA reporter saw tractors and harvesters preventing
other drivers from refuelling their vehicles at a city exit
point.

The idea of the demonstration is to show what will happen if
farmers begin using public filling stations on September 1 after
 refusing to install fuel gauges and cash registers in their own
 in-house filling stations, Vulev explained. In Rousse, for
example, there are 460 registered combine harvesters and 2,600
tractors, all of which are supposed to use public filling
stations after September 1 if they do not install the required
devices in their own stations.

The devices which grain growers are required to buy would cost
each user between 18,000 and 25,000 leva, which means between
180 million and 200 million leva in total. The government
ordinance says that only three brands of devices will be
accepted, and they are imported in Bulgaria by two companies,
Vulev said.

He threatened that unless the requirement is repealed, farmers
will continue their demonstrations by blocking roads and
national border crossings.