Press release of the Minister of Finance Arben Ahmetaj:
Hello!
Other good news for the economy, but in this case for the agricultural sector.
As part of the 2014 package for agriculture initiated by Prime Minister Rama, thanks to which we were able to create direct support for farmers by making VAT reimbursable from 6% to 20% for farmers, in addition to removing customs duties and VAT for many basic agricultural and livestock products; today, after a long consultation within the government, within the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party, in consultation with our allies in the government, in the capacity of Minister of Finances, I made today some changes in the directive of the Ministry of Finance “For the compensation scheme for farmers”, in order to continue facilitating and supporting the work of farmers, manufacturers and collectors in the agricultural sector.
I want to reiterate, and it is important that the compensation scheme to farmers, which previously was 6% and did not work at all, became 20% in 2014 thus providing a direct incentive for Albanian farmers in view of the expansion of their production activity, both agricultural and livestock.
This scheme has been designed as such to not burden farmers with the administrative burden of issuing bills, statements, retention and use of cash recorders. The obligation of the farmers is to be equipped with TIN, sell products and obtain 20% VAT compensation back.
What are the changes foreseen in view of facilitating the procedures for farmers and companies that purchase their products? These changes, as I said earlier, have been consulted within the government. Last week the Prime Minister and I had a meeting with collectors, producers and processors in the agriculture and livestock sector, and after the consultation we have reached the conclusion to take the following measures:
1. Purchases in cash can be done for up to 30,000 ALL, for products that a farmer sells to various buyers, companies of agribusiness or processing of agricultural and livestock products, or for exporters of these products, or any other entity that buys products from farmers equipped with TIN. So, for 30 thousand ALL (new currency) the transaction is made cash and only for a TIN. So, farmers with TIN, and this is a daily transaction. So a farmer can perform daily cash transactions up to 30 thousand new ALL. It was a demand by the sector, farmers and processors what today was put into act in consultation with the Prime Minister through the signing of the directive “For the Compensation Scheme for farmers.”
2. With the entry into force of this directive, only sales that exceed 150.000 ALL are required to be carried out through the bank.
3. Payments for sales that amount from 30,000 payments to 150,000 ALL are carried out through subsidiaries of the Albanian Post Office, and for those who want even through the bank. I reiterate that we have asked the Albanian Post Office and will continue to ask them to intensify their services provided to farmers who want to make payments, as well as to extend the service in rural areas or where buyers of the products of farmers operate, so if possible, directly in the collection points.
4. This directive puts exporters of agricultural products under the category of subjects with zero risk, and as such they are entitled to automatic VAT refund within 30 days. It is imperative that exporters maintain fiscal transparency at 100% in order not to descend from green to red, in the concept of risk, so go from zero risk to a greater risk for missing the chance of automatic VAT reimbursement.
5. To simplify the billing process for companies, an issue that has been often raised by farmers, also at the last meeting of the Prime Minister with collectors and producers of agricultural and livestock products, so in order to facilitate the billing process for companies that buy products from the farmer, a special procedure has been envisaged for this category of companies, which is that of the approval for the use of the digital invoice.
These entities have the option of choosing to simplify the billing procedure that consisted in:
– obtaining the bills from the Regional Tax Directorates
– filling them in in writing
– having them registered in the books of purchase and sales
With the entry into force of this Regulation, every business that buys the products of farmers has access to the digital bill.
For this, it is enough to:
– create a digital tax bill with the required information
– submit it to the Regional tax Directorate, which will provide it with a serial number
Today, a collector is not required any longer to sit all day long and fill in 500 to 700 bills. Now they can create their own digital bills provided with a serial number obtained by the Regional tax Directorate. This is a great help for their work in terms of procedures.
6. Measures have been taken to deliver at the customs points the service for the export of agricultural production. In April this year, in the capacity of the Minister of Finance, I ordered by order no. 8874 the customs branches and alerted customs agencies electronically to provide service around the clock to exporters of agricultural and livestock products. This order makes border customs available around the clock to these exporters, in addition to making inefficient the delivery of the authorization for local clearance, or the performance of customs procedures at the facilities for these subjects.
Meanwhile, to exclude the scanning of agricultural products or to minimize it on special occasions, based on the above directive, as well as in view of the implementation of the action plan, in order to assist manufacturers, domestic exporters of agricultural products and livestock, the green canals at customs has been implemented. Through the green canal exporters go straight to customs checkpoints without being controlled, thus saving time in favour of business and export. I want to share with you a very interesting figure. 90% of statements for export of agricultural products and livestock pass today through the green canal.
So, as you can see, the government has taken another step to facilitate and support the agricultural and livestock sector. This is in the wake of the logic to support the sector with packages from the government. I want to remind you the manufacturing package, a very successful package implemented in April 2014, which resulted in 24.6% growth in exports. In the same year the agriculture package initiated by the Prime Minister of Albania increased the export of agricultural production. This package facilitates procedures following the 2014 logic.
Are these changes a reflection of the concerns raised by your ally, the SMI? Some time ago, the deputy chairman of this party, Vasili, wrote a letter to the agriculture sector.
Minister Ahmetaj: As I said, today’s facilitations are in the wake of the package initiated by the Prime Minister of Albania in 2014 to support agriculture. For the sake of transparency to the public, the chairman of the Economic Committee, Mr Braçe, has been raising this issue in the socialist parliamentary group for at least 3 months, and the first concern has come from collectors and farmers of Divjakë, Lushnje, Fier and Berat.
Certainly, we are in harmony with our allies in this logic. The chairman of the SMI group sent a letter to the Prime Minister and to me 2 weeks ago, following the concerns raised by the chairman of the Economic Committee, Mr Braçe, throughout these months. So if we go back to the history of issues, we are in full harmony with the logic within the alliance, we are in harmony with the logic to support the agricultural sector.
While you are presenting various relief packages for the toll manufacturing, the mining industry or agriculture, the DP is presenting economic projects and promises of tax cuts. Are these the first steps of the election campaign?
Minister Ahmetaj: We rule, we are not in an election competition. We are competing only with ourselves, we are not competing with anybody. I won’t dwell into comments on the so-called package of the opposition, but I will emphasize two things. This government, with its logic of packages, has stimulated sectors which today are very important and give a real contribution to the GDP growth. Packages for agriculture, packages for manufacture, packages for tourism. I believe that we will provide within 2 weeks also the package for the mineral industry which, due to external factors concerning the stock price, needs direct support. We are preparing it in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and will present it, the Prime Minister will present it soon. I emphasize, we rule, we are not competing with the future, we are not in competition with the opposition.
A few words on the package, because the package will deserve a special consideration in the coming 2 weeks, and you will see why. But I will tell you three primary things on the package, without destroying the good news for agriculture.
1. It increases debt to 80%.
2. It takes away 100 million Dollars from the pockets of 617 thousand Albanian employees.
3. The reviewed pension package takes away from over 18 thousand people the social pension. They will be left without food and without money. There are many other things to say, but we are not here for the package of the opposition.
Thank you!
