Prime Minister Edi Rama’s response to opposition claims at today’s parliament session:
Well, it is not a big deal that you accuse us, but how dare you take the floor here and throw all that mud on a personality of the global economy, the representative of one of the world’s biggest companies that is coming to invest in Albania as a result of a strategic relation, under which more than 2000 apartment homes are being built in Spitalle and thanks to which an investment never made and never imagined ever before is made in our country, an investment project that is designed to transform Durres one of the major tourism destinations in the Mediterranean, although nothing hasn’t been approved yet, nothing was discussed, but a draft law was simply included on the agenda to undergo a fast-track procedure and the draft will take time and will undergo parliamentary discussion.
The contract should undergo a fast-track procedure, because this is what we think and because we have no time to lose, as we have been negotiating this contract for more than a year, and it is a contract under which the Albanian state will become a co-shareholder. But you are a bunch of losers, faceless, people without religion, nation, or faith, because you take floor here early in the morning and –I said it is not a big deal when it comes to us – but you speculate and level accusations of unfair deals and affairs, tell lies and accuse a personality and a company, one of the largest in the world, of dirty business, instead of expressing gratitude for coming to invest in Albania. You are some losers, faceless, individuals without religion, nation or faith.
This is what you are, because, if you were to have a face, if you were to have a nation, religion and faith you wouldn’t have hurt and do to Albania what you have already done. What have you done to Albania? You have been paid with Russian money to overthrow the government of your country. This is what you have done to Albania.
I would invite you to tell me for what reason should Russian money be used in Albania to overthrow the government of your country? Or would you deny receiving Russian money? You could have denied receiving the money until recently and you could float the hypothesis, as you actually did, you claimed that this was a conspiracy plan devised by Soros and Edvin. But, with the CIA report released, it is there in black and white that the Democratic Party has received Russian money.
You have been paid with Russian money to overthrow the government of your country. And you still dare take the floor and speak not about what will happen in our country and not who will be investing in our country.
You have been funded by the Russians to overthrow the government of your country. You have nothing to say to me, you have no eyes to see or no ears to hear. Tell me why the Russians had to pay your party, to overthrow the government of your country, to make it more democratic, just, to make it more transparent, more dignified, or are you going to tell me you didn’t get that money.
This government, completely different from your useless allegations you can afford making, this cabinet is one that takes responsibility for its citizens, takes responsibility for the households, it takes responsibility for the small businesses and protects them by employing a financial shield that is estimated to jump to over 460 million euros until December 31. The government has made available 460 million euros in state budget funds so that the Albanian families and small businesses across the country keep receiving the same pre-crisis electricity bill rates and so that they are not affected by the well-thought shock by the Kremlin’s dictator and such a decision is also stipulated in the 2023 state budget draft in order to protect the household consumers and small businesses at any cost.
The new state budget bill we are presenting in Parliament envisages a total of 50 billion lek or half a billion dollars earmarked to provide relief and support to the people. The fund of around half a billion dollars will be allocated to protect our citizens from the shock and the effects of this war, the effects of the energy prices, protect small businesses from the rising electricity prices and therefore protect all the consumers from the soaring inflation rate.
And it is not a coincidence that Albania currently records the lowest inflation rate in the region and this is precisely because of the fact that Albania is applying protected electricity prices for households and businesses. If we were to increase the electricity price for small businesses, this increased price would be reflected on all the transactions and goods and services they offer to the consumers and it would automatically affect the Albanian families themselves.
I can tell Albanians many meaningful things about the proposed state budget bill and the public debt. Despite the current difficult situation and all the hardship, the next year’s state budget will cut the public debt, which is not as high as you allegedly claim and current public debt is estimated at 68.8% of the GDP and will be lowered to 67.5%.
Most importantly, it is worth noting that the economic growth between 2014 and 2021 has been averagely three times higher than the debt, because what matters most after all is not the amount of the loan you receive, but how much money from this loan you used to settle the debt and beyond the debt. And indeed, if we are not to consider the economic slowdown in 2020, the economy would have expanded on average 3.7 times compared to the public debt.
The 2023 state budget is projected to be twice as much as the 2013 state budget and I would focus on the protection of the households and small businesses, whereas the cabinet members can elaborate on projected spending in each sector.
Likewise, we will also increase the minimum wage rate again, after having raised it twice this year, and we project the minimum monthly wage to be increased to 36,000 lek, and to 38.000 lek later next year. Under such a measure, a total of $21 million will be directly benefited to the low-income families and this is translated into a monthly increase of 3500 lek for around 100,000 families all over the country thanks to the minimum wage increase this year and in the first half of the next year.
The effect of the pay rise for the public administration employees is estimated at 3.3 billion, a plan to further consolidate the pay hike we approved in September this year. In the meantime, we project a 6% pay hike for the education and health system workers, the fire-fighters. We also plan a significant increase for the servicemen. We will continue to support the Albanian families by increasing the pay level exempted from the personal income tax to 50, 000 lek, with 70,000 more workers with a monthly wage of 50,000 lek to benefit from this decision, which will have an effect of 1.2 billion lek, an amount that will directly end up in the coffers of the Albanian families.
Likewise, we will support the families and individuals currently under the economic welfare scheme and the persons with disabilities, with an estimated state budget cost of 25.5 billion lek for 2023. The next year’s state budget also includes a novelty, because apart from doubling the economic assistance, we will keep consolidating this two-fold increase we have already approved this year, but the decision’s effect on the state budget will be more complete for the single mothers and female family heads with two or more children, as well as for the elderly over 65, who are not entitled to benefit pension.
The government will pay the social and health insurance contributions for the unemployed mothers with three more children under five years old, considering children upbringing as a full-time job for them. We will also allocate a fund of 2.2 billion lek for the baby bonus. In addition to the pension indexation, we will maintain the special budget line for the year-end bonus, regardless of the difficult situation this year. We will pay out the year-end bonus in early December and not at the end of the month. The next year’s state budget, too, includes the year-end bonus for the retirees. The pensions cost in 2013 was estimated at 76.9 billion lek and this budget effect will be almost doubled. So the state budget’s contribution for the retired people is estimated at 141.4 billion lek.
The next year’s state budget features another novelty, as we plan to provide assistance through a sovereign guarantee fund to an initial group of 1000 young families, to enable them purchase a house. The initial group of beneficiaries will include mostly doctors, nurses, servicemen, police workers, and young people and we will provide them the opportunity to guarantee their home purchasing loans.
As for the health system, I am pleased to announce that it was just a day ago when I was notified about winning another trial against your slanders and your slanderers regarding the primary medical check up programme. I am not naming the person that has now been convinced for slandering. I am not naming her because the names are of no avail and because you are all the same dummies, “the tail of the persona non-grata.”
The contract on the primary medical check-up will go on serving, no longer a large group, but a consolidated group of citizens that benefit from this service. Likewise, we will continue the early detection programme for the tumours mainly affecting women, as well as the periodical medical check up for free for over 490,000 people annually.
We will also definitely continue supporting and reimbursing treatment of chronic diseases and the post-covid impact by reimbursing medicines and treatment through a significant increase of the medicine reimbursement scheme. However, the Health Minister herself will go over details.
I would also focus on the social protection of the education system, whereas the Minister will elaborate on the education policies. We have decided to introduce a food quota programme for the schoolchildren with special needs and an initial step has been included in the proposed state budget bill for 2023.
We also plan additional funding to ensure the teachers’ transport and all employees working far from their place of residence, not accessible by the urban transport service.
A youth guarantee fund will also become operational, in a bid to make sure that every young boy or girl be provided with a training, education and employment offer within four months after being identified.
I would also focus on the government’s relief and support packages for the agriculture sector, whereas the Minister will further elaborate other budget aspects for this sector. Agriculture is scheduled to receive the largest funding volume ever, including a national support scheme providing a direct assistance package of 1.97 billion lek. Implementation of the EU-funded IPARD programme with a fund of 3.9 billion is also set to kick off next year. The combined funding makes the agriculture, livestock and fishing budget incomparable to what used to happen previously, and, on the other hand, makes it a budget easily comparable to other countries in the region, if we are to consider the data from all sides.
Finally, I would like to underscore that the new fiscal package contains some minor changes, but not the ones that you faceless, people without nation, religion and faith for days on claimed that the package envisaged hefty tax penalties on the small business, urging people to take the streets and protest, but no protests took place and there is no reason for protests to happen, because although people are facing woes and have probably 1001 reasons to be unhappy with us, yet they are not stupid to follow and join you.
You actually claimed that tenfold higher tax penalties would be allegedly levelled on the small businesses. But the truth is that no burden will be imposed on the small business. Small business is the biggest ally of this government and has been treated as this government’s ally and, like in no other country in the region, let alone in Europe, zero profit tax and VAT tax rates are applied to the small businesses! Zero VAT and zero profit tax rates. And this will be the case until 2029. We have delivered on this commitment and given this pledge alone we will keep defeating you all together, because we can’t afford letting small business in your hand.
Based on the National Consultation findings, a process that saw participation of over half a million Albanians from all social categories, we have decided to increase and we will significantly increase the tax penalties on the big business.
As we speak, another National Territory Council has most recently confiscated illegal buildings in Tirana, in the outskirts of the capital city, in the coastal areas and everywhere else. It is about illegal constructions built for profitable purposes. We will introduce a tax scheme on the freelance services or freelancers and we plan to remove the excise on the electric car batteries, a decision with no significant effect for the time being, but it is a reasonable and needed stimulus in the context of the implementation of the energy saving strategy, subsidizing the solar panels price. We will certainly unify the beer excise so that all companies operate on equal footing in a market that has been deliberately deformed until lately to protect local business. This way we harmonize all the obligations stemming from the EU integration process.
And I would like to conclude right where I started. This country has found it very difficult to attract foreign investors over so many years. Today’s figures are completely different now and today’s Albania is a very attractive country for investment projects and the investment we are about to make in the Durres Port is a national symbol.
A national symbol of a new era, when more than 12,000 people will be directly and directly employed, a project with the state budget paying zero money, but attracts a foreign direct investment worth two billion euros. This is a project to be implemented by a foreign company, the very company that has built the Burj Khalifa skyscraper. Yes, it doesn’t matter, the work will continue and I will answer that question at the end. Why are you hurrying, because we don’t have time to rest?
