World Bank favors progressive tax

The World Bank declared for the first time that they support the progressive tax in Albania. The World Bank Director for Western Balkan, Elen Goldstein, declared that the progressive principle is one of the four measures that this institution has recommended to the Albanian government.

“During our discussions with the Albania government we have underlined four effective ideas regarding what should be done. One is that every measure should neutral in the budget. If taxes are lowered for someone, it should be compensated by increasing it for someone else. Secondly, it could be very effective to increase the progressivity of the tax system, so that those with more incomes can pay more than those with lower incomes. Thirdly, it would be the decreasing of evasion and enlarging the tax-payer basis. The last measure is preserving social mechanisms to protect poor people”, declared Goldstein, World Bank Director for Western Balkan.

Arriving in Tirana together with the Executive Director of the World Bank for Albania, Piero Cipolone, Mrs.Goldstein has confirmed that the World Bank will support the government with loans for paying debts to companies.

“As for the loan, I can say that it will be big enough to cover the budget gap, as soon as the fiscal plan has been defined. After agreeing for the measures of incomes and spending, there will be a deficit that will be financed by different sources, and the World Bank will enter as a last hand loaner, for closing this deficit”, Goldstein declared.

The Bank leaders have confirmed that the loan will be ready in the budget of next year, but before they should reach a consensus with the government about the conditions.

“This is a loan that will be part of the government budget. This is the meaning of the budget support. It is not money that goes straight to the budget, and they are not blocked for some projects. The project is that we can agree about the measures that will bring a stable and fiscal macro-economic situation. As soon as we will agree with this, the loan will be available to for funding next year’s budget”, Goldstein declared.

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