Standart: Bulgaria gets 5 years grace period for South Stream payments

Bulgaria will not pay any lev for the South Stream pipeline in the first 5 years, it became clear from the words Coalition for Bulgaria MP Tasko Ermenkov on bTV.

The Russian side agreed for a five years grace period for the loan that the project company will take to fund the Bulgarian share of the construction. So the first 5 years of the pipeline will be free of interest and installments for Bulgaria. Given that the loan will have to be paid for 22-years, in real terms Bulgaria will pay contributions only in 17 of them, Ermenkov informed.

Moreover, Bulgaria is set to receive dividends from the very first moment after which the pipeline starts to receive transit fees and receive transit fees. This money will be used to repay the loan. According Ermenkov, 80% of the transit fees received by Bulgaria will go to repay the loan and 20% will remain as profit.  MORE