Elbasan, 500 small businesses closing

The Vice Mayor of Elbasan, Serafin Papa, declared that 500 businesses have filed for bankruptcy in the last months, and the number is expected to increase by the end of the year.

The Elbasan Municipality registered 230 new business subjects during 2011, while 500 others are closing. The big difference has created concerns among the businessmen.

The owners of these businesses say that taxes and other bills, such as electricity and water, are constantly growing and this makes their activity impossible to survive.

Most of the closing businesses are those of daily consume, such as minimarkets, clothing and dry-goods shops.

Other businessmen are closing their activities without paying the Tax Office, creating damages to the latter, who have asked the Municipality’s help for collecting the remaining obligations.

The city of Elbasan has 3200 small business, and the entire district counts around 10.000.

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