The Socialist Party proposed a series of fiscal amends that were mainly
based on agriculture. The first proposition was to make the government
remove the excise for the oil that is used in agriculture.
“This is so that oil could cost 1350 and not 1800, but Sali Berisha refused. We will remove the excise for agriculture and the circulation tax for agricultural machinery. Do you understand how he is robbing the Albanians? A circulation tax for a tractor that simply works in the fields, not highways”, declared the Socialist MP, Erjon Brace.
The Minister of Finances, Ridvan Bode, declared that the opposition’s proposition leads to a failed scheme that they tried in 2003.
“Turn back in time and see if prices fell after oil excise was removed. The ones who profited from your law were the mediators, not the farmers”, Bode declared.
Besides the excise, the Socialist MPs proposed new measures that would decrease costs.
“VAT should be removed from chemicals; insecticides, pesticides and imported machinery, so that the most active sector, agriculture and farming, can function normally. We propose to reduce the price for seeds and vaccines”, Kodheli declared.
But the government says that they have chosen to inform farmers not through taxes, but with a direct transfer.
“The excise that you claimed that was profited by farmers was 2.5 million USD, and it was in fact taken by mediators. You know better than us that farmers receive 15 million USD each year through supportive policies, and this will even increase”, Bode declared.
The opposition had planed a draft that returns the progressive tax, which, according to the MPs, facilitates its fiscal burden with more than 95% of the employees in the administration and private sector, by giving away 63 million USD each year. The majority refused all amends proposed by the Socialists by passing the initial variant proposed by the government.
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