Small business representatives had a debate with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama this Friday, focusing on high taxes, frequent inspection and reduction of the VAT threshold.
The leader of the association, Albert Nasto, reminded the Prime Minister how they opposed Berisha’s government decision to reduce the threshold from 8 million to 5 million. Rama responded simply by saying that it wasn’t true.
Nasto said that from 2014 to 2017, 82,000 businesses have closed their doors.
Rama: Where do you find these numbers?
Albert Nasto: From the Business Registration Office. It is accurate.
Rama: It is not accurate, but go on.
Albert Nasto: This is caused by the tax raise, not only from the central government, but also from local governments, energy price, fuel price, and let’s not talk about its quality. We have reduced purchase parity, also due to the European crisis. In Albania, it has dropped to 43%, according to us. Corruption is gangrene. There is an exaggerated frequency of inspections, exaggerated fines. A single business in 2015 has received 9 inspections and there are 16 directories controlling them.
Rama: This is fantasy because today we have more businesses than 4 years ago and more consumption. It is not true that the purchase parity has dropped.
Rama said in this meeting that the protests of small businesses have no valid arguments and that they were incited politically.
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