Removing VAT for food

Gramoz Ruci, leader of the SP Parliamentary Group, handed over to the Parliament Speaker, Jozefina Topalli, the draft for changing the law on VAT.

The Socialist draft, a copy of which has been secured by Top-Channel, aims that the supplies of “wheat, flour, bread, milk and eggs should have 0 VAT, while cooking oil, sugar and rice should have 10% VAT instead of 20%, starting from January 1st 2012. The third article of the draft demands that the medical goods acquired by public and private health institutions should be excluded from VAT.”

Together with the draft, the Parliament Speaker has received a report in which the Socialists have listed a series of reasons why VAT should be removed from these goods.

“These basic food products today take half of the total budget of a family with average revenues, while most of the Albanians cannot put aside any of their revenues”, says the report.

The Socialists say that the financial burden for every Albanian family in the last 5 years has increased with 18%. During this period, although the revenues for consume increased with 44%, the price of some of the basic products has increased as it follows:

Electricity has increased with 62%
Medicines with 43%
Health Service, 50%
Flour, bread, sugar, oil and rice, 52%

All the demand for cooking oil, sugar and rice is supplied by imports. Halving VAT for these goods would affect the state budget with 1.8 billion ALL, while zeroing VAT for wheat, flour, bread, milk and eggs would have an effect of 1.9 billion ALL.

For the planners of this draft, the financial consequences of this legal initiation might be replaced by the revenues that will be secured after giving the second 3G license to another mobile company and by improving the financial administration by lowering tax evasion.

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