SOFIA (Bulgaria), December 20, By Boyko Nikolov (Bm), Photo: Pan.bg

Today, MTG Dolphin Shipyard, located in the town of Varna, Bulgaria, declined to sign the contract for building of two patrol boats for the needs of the Bulgarian Navy. This was stated by the Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov in front of the Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and reporters during the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Earlier today, MTG Dolphin declined to comment on that to Bm.

The Ministry of Defence made a formal announcement on that issue: “The actual reduction of the project value by 20% for investment expenditure due to the introduced, since 1st Jan. 2017, VAT on all military deals was pointed out by MTG Dolphin as a basic reason for the withdrawal.”

We’d like to remind that about a month ago the Shipyard of Varna were awarded the project for building of two multifunctional patrol boats at the total amount of BGN 820 million in partnership with the companies Thales Group, German Diehl Defens, Italian Leonardo, French MBDA and Rheinmetall (Switzerland and Germany)