SOFIA (Bulgaria), March 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov on Thursday asked majority state-owned tobacco group Bulgartabac Holding to suspend chief executive Hristo Lachev, who is being investigated for embezzlement and is accused of tax evasion, the minister's press office said.
Dimitrov asked the group's supervisory board to suspend Lachev from office until the criminal investigations against him are completed, the office said in a statement.
Lachev was accused on Thursday of evading personal income taxes as an individual and not as chief executive of the tobacco holding company.
He told SeeNews he denied the accusation on tax evasion and did not comment on the ongoing investigation on embezzlement.
"As I was accused today in connection with my personal affairs, I asked for a meeting with the minister and told him that for the sake of the company and for the normal work of the colleagues, for the preservation of the image of Bulgartabac, it would be good if I file a leave request until the case is concluded," Lachev said.
Data on the amount of taxes said to have been involved was not immediately available.
Bulgartabac, which is 80% state-owned and was once a cigarette monopoly, dominates the domestic market with a share of around 70%. The group turned to a consolidated loss of 1.4 million levs ($1.1 million/716,000 euro) last year, compared to a consolidated net profit of 7.7 million levs in the previous year, as costs rose faster than revenue.
The group's privatisation has been delayed for years by political wrangling. Last month the Socialist-led three-party government coalition confirmed its plans to sell Bulgartabac, whose privatisation has failed three times in the last six years.
Bulgartabac plans to sell two of its four cigarette factories, Plovdiv BT and Slantse-Stara Zagora BT, with their production licences, to stay afloat. It will transfer production of the two plants to its bigger factories, Sofia BT and Blagoevgrad BT.
Earlier this week Dimitrov said four international majors have expressed interest in its privatisation. The ministry has approved a plan to sell Plovdiv BT and Slantse-Stara Zagora BT on the stock exchange in Sofia.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)
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