Excise, only 68 votes in favor

“At 10:04, the Parliament started the law for the excise, and the law for the tax procedures was not in the agenda. After four minutes, this agenda was withdrawn and another one was distributed, in which there are two draft laws, that of the excises and that of the tax procedures. Five weeks ago, the law for the excise was discussed in Commissions and was part of the agenda, but it was removed without any explanation or any Parliament decision. There is only one explanation for this; the lobbing of any beer merchant with the government against this law, and this shows that this Parliament can be leased by the beer merchants, only for their personal interests”, declared the Socialist MP, Erjon Brace.

Despite the opposition’s objections, the Parliament started the procedures for passing the law that Minister of Finances Ridvan Bode considered as a solution of the tax and excise administration, in accordance with the EU directives.

“The new law foresees the sanctioning of the entire experience gained during this period, and improve the administration of this tax, so that in the future it can turn into one of the main pillars for the udget revenues, same as in every other modern tax system, where VAT, consumption tax and excise accumulate 80% of the budget revenues. The new law aims to approach our standards to those required by the European directive of 2007 for the implementation of more positive experiences and the unification of the procedures and standards in the administration of this tax. This law was planned with direct contribution from the EU”, the Minister of Finances declared.

But the former Socialist Minister of Finances, Arben Malaj, argued that the law doesn’t resolve the issues claimed by the government.

“A law that the government is trying to put in act as soon as possible, and which requires 36 sublegal acts, which has been debated too much with the government and the business community, but that doesn’t foresee the budget changes, has no sense to be rushed this way by the government. We are concerned that the passage of the excise administration is not about to improve what in Albania has negative values in all indexes. This is not the right step for improving the fiscal administration in our tax system”, declared the former Socialist Minister of Finances, Arben Malaj.

The new law foresees that the business will freeze a financial guarantee for the entire production that is under process or in stock, even without selling it. The law includes in the excise some other energy products and equals the obligation measure for the replacement goods.

Majority falls to 68 votes

The government Parliamentary majority fell to 68 votes, from 71 that is the minimal majority in our 140 seats Parliament. This shows that the government majority has been weakened. Three MPs from the government’s ally Party, the Socialist Movement for Integration, were absent in the voting process, while the New Democratic Spirit MP and the former Socialist MP, Kastriot Islami, left the room.

The PJIU MP was also absent, by shrinking the majority even more.

According to the opposition, passing the excise law only with 68 votes is a violation, because the necessary 71 MPs quorum was not accomplished.

Top Channel