National Customs Agency

      Pavel Tonev
           Director General

Pavel Tonev possesses a long-term experience in the area of customs and excise activity both as an official and a manager in the customs administration and in the private sector as a consultant in the field of the customs and excise legislation.

From 1991 to 2002 he successively took various expert and managerial positions, including Head of Customs House.  
From 2002 to 2009 he was a Director of the Plovdiv Regional Customs Directorate.
From August 2013 to May 2014 and from May 2021 to August 2022 he was Director General of the National Customs Agency.    
He has a higher education in the majors ‘ Accounting and Control’ in the University of National and World Economy and ‘Law’ in the Veliko Tarnovo Univerisity ‘St. St. Cyril and Methodius’
He was born on 23.11.1966.

He took office on 08.06.2023

          Functions of the Director General

The National Customs Agency (NCA) is managed and represented by a NCA Director General (DG). In performing his or her functions, the NCA DG is assisted by three NCA Deputy DGs. The Director General shall delegate powers to the NCA Deputy Directors with an order and shall define their functions.The functions of the NCA Director General, when absent or on its paid annual leave, shall be performed by a NCA Deputy Director designated with its order on case-by-case basis.  The Director General of the NCA shall:

The Director General of the NCA shall:

• Represent the Agency;
• Exercise management and control on the performance of its functions and tasks;
• Run directly the activity of the Central Customs Directorate;
• Plan, distribute and administer the utilization of the Agency's budgetary allocations provided;
• Appoint the civil servants, amend and terminate the service relationships with them;
• Coordinated with the Minister of Finance, appoint the directors of directorates in the specialized administration of the Agency and the directors of the Territorial directorates;
• Sign, amend and terminate the labour contracts with the persons, working in the Agency under labour relationship;
• Define the workplace of the NCA officials;
• Grant leaves and deploy NCA officials to business trips;
• Endorse rules for organization of the activity, internal order, salary and bonuses within the NCA;
• Endorse the NCA establishment plan;
• Endorse the job functional specifications for the individual structural units in the Agency;
• Define the job positions for which carrying of service weapons is compulsory;
• Define the special-purpose vehicles;
• Issue certificates for completed professional qualification improvement course to the officials in the customs administration;  
• Issue penal orders in the cases, stipulated by law;
• Issue individual administrative acts within the DG powers;
• Propose measures to define customs policies to the Minister of Finance or to a Deputy Minister, designated by the minister;
• Propose the signing of international agreements and joining international conventions in the field of customs to the Minister of Finance or to a Deputy Minister, designated by the minister;
• Cooperate with other bodies on the definition, execution and control of the activities, relating to customs issues;
• Exercise the powers under Art. 7 and 7a of the Ordinance on Border-Crossing Points, adopted with CoM Decree No. 104 of 2002;
• Perform other duties, as assigned by law or other administrative acts.

Deputy Director General

Lachezar Krastev
Deputy Director General

Petya Bankova
Deputy Director General

Functions of the Deputy Directors General

While performing his functions, the NCA Director General shall be assisted by NCA Deputy Directors General.
The NCA DG shall delegate powers to the NCA Deputy Directors General with an order and shall define their functions.
The functions of the NCA Director General, when absent or on its paid annual leave, shall be performed by a NCA Deputy Director General, designated with its order on case-by-case basis.    

Secretary General  

Irena Stamenova

Secretary General  

Functions of the Secretary General  

The administrative management of the National Customs Agency (NCA) is carried out by a Secretary General (SG).
The SG manages, coordinates and controls the work of the activity of the administration in line with the legal directions of the NCA Director General (DG) to ensure compliance with the normative acts. The SG shall:

• Organizationally connect the DG and the administrative units within the NCA as well as the administrative units themselves;
• Organize the distribution of tasks among the NCA administrative units;  
• Create conditions for normal and efficient operation of the NCA units;
• Control the execution of the tasks, assigned to the administration;
• Control and be responsible for the documents and their storage;
• Endorse internal rules for organisation of administrative services;
• Control the performance of the tasks related to the defence and mobilisation preparation and wartime planning;
• Endorse the job descriptions of the NCA officials.
• Perform also other tasks, assigned by the Director General.