Communication with the public over the extended economic support package:

Good afternoon!
I am here today to talk together and answer to many questions raised following the announcement of the extended support package for a total of 176,000 families a day ago. Indeed, if we are to add the number of individuals and families included in the first support package, the total number of those who benefit direct support is accounted for over the half of the private sector workers in the Republic of Albania.
I would start with a most frequently asked question;
“Where should I ask for in order to receive the payment and should this procedure be carried out by the suspended employee or the company he used to work for?”
Please concentrate and listen carefully all answers directly related to your questions and concerning your interest,
We want this 400,000 lek or $400 dollar salary is directly paid to each of you rather than allocate it through the employer or the company.
“How the beneficiaries were selected?”
The workers to benefit payment under the package have been selected according to the payrolls submitted by the private companies until April 10, which means that all individuals turning out to be suspended and unpaid, they have been all identified week after week and all it takes is for you to confirm your names as soon as the relevant section on the official website of the General Taxation Directorate becomes operational. Just a simple confirmation, taking no verification procedures of whatsoever, just like it was the case with the first support package, with the verification of each closed small business by the inspectors on the ground being a mandatory procedure. This is the reason why the procedure is somehow longer.
As of today, based on the most recent data, as many as 31,000 individuals have received payment. The remaining 40,000 people will receive the payment in the coming days. Nobody will be denied the payment, yet everyone has to bear in mind that it requires everything to be in order in terms of state accounting. It takes just a click, a “yes, it’s me” confirmation and that’s it.
“When the wartime salaries are to be paid, since we are receiving nothing? I have provided my bank account to the company, but no money is transferred, while we are running out of food.”
It is not clear whether you are included in the small business category that is entitled to benefit under the first support package, or whether you belong to the category due to benefit under the second extended package, but it is clear for everyone that workers in both categories will have their payment directly transferred to their own bank account, and not to the employer’s account.
“What is going to happen with us without other source of income and working in the shadow economy?”
This is one of the most frequently asked question by many people and, unfortunately, many of those who make such a question fail to understand and instead go even further to burst into scorns, insults, curses, calling everything a lie and saying “it is us to be blamed for trusting you” and stuff like that. But we have been strongly combating the illegal employment in the shadow economy and practically we have lifted a huge number of unregistered people out of this form of slavery. However, no other country on the planet, neither the United States, nor France or England, and no other country have approved a support package or have allocated a fund to support the illegal workers. And this is for a very simple reason, because nobody would be able to truly establish who has and has not been really working in the shadow economy and who says: “I have been working illegally and therefore I want a payment.” This is impossible. That’s why informality is a wound that need to be fought every day and that’s why all those who have been working illegally – if they are really facing difficulties and I understand that they are – they should have the courage to report their employers.
We are preparing a financial reward to every individual who would dare and report their employer and that today have no income, not because they haven’t been working, but because the employer or the company has refused to register them. Some say: “How am I supposed to report the employer since he can do this and that to me??!” How are we supposed to solve this matter then, when, despite finding yourself in deep trouble, your still have no courage to fight for yourself!
The law clearly stipulates that business owners face stiff penalties if they hire people illegally. But this issue cannot be resolved by checks, inspections, and verifications, because it is a tacit deal between an owner and an individual and such an agreement leaves no traces of whatsoever. If there is no voice from within, then, this then cannot be resolved even though in many cases, we have managed to make lift many people from illegal employment thanks to the extreme pressure efforts we have exerted on the private companies.
In the next 24 hours we will present a new offer to all of those currently working illegally in a company or to everyone who used to be working in the shadow company until two, three, four, or even five weeks ago and who find themselves today without any support, since they turn out to be registered in no payrolls. We will provide them a financial reward and we will assume responsibility to go after anyone until the employer agrees and recognizes their right to be registered and we will ask the company owners to join this initiative, or otherwise they will face the law. This is not the time to do what should be done we should have done on a normal day, because everyone is increasingly in very big trouble. This is the time to help as much as possible and we will ask the owners to help those whom they owe something, but we cannot do it if you keep on just complaining and cursing.
Meanwhile, you should grasp that no state in the world would do this, just because it is simply undoable. If we are to state that we will provide support to all of those who have been working in the shadow economy, how are we supposed to distinguish between the truth and the lie? How are we going to distinguish between someone who tells the truth and someone who tells lies, because would then turn out that everyone has been working in shadow economy?
“Postponement of payment deadlines …,” –says Nehat, an employer, adding: “How are we going to do this?”
Payment of the social insurance contributions will not be postponed. The payments of the social insurance contributions are the pensions. Payments of the social insurance contributions are exactly the ones to distinguish among the people who are being supported and those we cannot support today. The payments of the social insurance contributions are the contribution of everyone for his own pension in the future, while your parents benefit pension payment today thanks to the contributions they used to pay once. It is impossible for us to delay payment of the social insurance contributions, because we would then create a deep hole from which we would be unable to get out.
You should definitely pay the social insurance contributions for all of your employers.
“Is the daily time period when people are allowed to use their cars is between 05:00 am to 08:00 am or 12:00 to 13:00 pm? Why don’t you explain it clearly?”
How many times should I explain everybody that the daily time period for the people to leave their homes has been extended, because we have slightly eased some of the restrictions? Taking notice of the fact that we have made some progress in this war, also thank to each and every one of you, but also in a sign of recognition of this contribution and the desire to ease the restrictions people are facing in their lives currently, we have decided to extend the daily time period to allow people, one member for each family, more space to pick and chose when they leave homes to do shopping. The daily time period when people are allowed to leave their houses is between 05:00 am to 05:30 pm. The same goes for the citizens to use their own private cars to drive to work. We are seeking to allow a larger number of citizens to drive their cars and to this end we are preparing a simple application in order to relieve people of some distress, as well as to discipline and reduce the number of the issued authorizations, so that whoever owns a private car is provided the opportunity to drive normally to work within the allowed daily time period. But nobody will be allowed to drive for fun through the city, instead of going to work, just like it was the case yesterday or last Friday. Therefore, in order to prevent this from turning into a phenomenon that would nullify everything we have achieved to date, we would allow private cars on the road to drive to work.
“None of the support packages to date includes the kindergarten teachers who are currently jobless after the kindergartens have been shut down.”
If this is about the private kindergartens and if it is about those being unable to go to work since kindergartens have been closed, the packages provide full support to these individuals.
“I would suggest that specialist should inspect every restaurant venue to determine which one meets the conditions and let them then to reopen. I own a small restaurant with a staff of two.”
Restaurants will be the last to reopen. This is the case and I am sorry about that. We are preparing the gradual reopening program, which we will announce in the coming days and it will be a clear and strict program regarding the rules everyone should obey when they reopen their commercial and economic activity. No other country has been considering a reopening and the ease of the lockdown with restaurants or bars being one of the first ones to reopen. They are the last ones to reopen. I’m sorry, but it’s impossible to do otherwise.
“How are the villagers supposed to travel to cities or bigger urban areas at a time when we are not allowed to use our cars?”
Once again, if you have to drive a car to work in a city, you can do that if you obtain first a due authorization, which will now be much easier ones in order to relax the travel ban and allow more people to use cars. I know it quite well and I am fully aware that using private car has been extremely restricted and I know that the majority of the applications to obtain an authorization have been turned down and this has happened neither to disrespect your applications, nor to impose stringent measures on people just for a dictatorial caprice or desire, but just to make sure that whoever wishes to see can clearly figure out the result we have achieved so far in this war and we should defend this achievement and further improve with the goal to make the curve fall to zero infections. On the other hand, of course, the pain from the effects of an economic nature is considerable, but let no one forget that this is all about protecting the citizens’ lives. I see that many of you have forgotten this.  I see that many of you still keep saying we will die of hunger, we will commit suicide for not having daily bread and that the coronavirus does no harm at all to us. No. The coronavirus can wreak havoc, just like it is doing on many, much bigger and more powerful nations, but the reason why the disease hasn’t caused much damage to us as of today is that we are much more and better protected than many other stronger and powerful countries than us. However, it would be fatal if we were to ignore the fact that the enemy is not gone, but it is still around us and as soon as we would leave a trail open, the enemy would wreak the havoc we have avoided so far. I would not allow this to happen. Nobody has in the Albanian lands, let alone in the Republic of Albania, has died of hunger since the era of Skanderbeg. No Albanian has ever died of hunger, because the Albanians’ history is that of bread, salt and heart! This saying has not come to exist accidentally. There is huge solidarity in this country, there is always a help provided in this country, despite of what some are saying. An increasing number of people most in need are being assisted like never before. More than 200,000 people have been helped under the ongoing humanitarian operation, not by providing them merely a kilo of pastas or a bottle of oil, but delivering them a full supply package to help low-income families and those in hardship. The families benefiting social welfare have received double social assistance payment precisely because of the ongoing situation. I do of course understand that people are coping with hardship, but we cannot allow for the sacrifices and hardship of thousands of people who continue to knock door-to-door and distribute relief supplies to go in vain.
“Will students receive scholarship payment?”
We haven’t suspended nothing for students, hoping that while in quarantine students will continue studying and they are not distracted wasting their precious time on Facebook.
“Suspended driving licenses …”
Driving licenses have been suspended for a reason and they won’t be recovered. Moreover, as I have already announced, the reopening process will be coupled with a series of more stringent measures. We can’t accept and tolerate those who wrongfully think we got away with it and start breaking any rule, risking nullifying all sacrifices we have made. The measures and penalties will stiffer further. We will adopt the amendments to the Criminal Code to include measures that need to be taken in an epidemic situation and measures that, like no other country in the world, have not been envisaged on the Criminal Code. Albania’s Criminal Code envisages the quarantine of animals, but not isolation of the people. No matter what many democratic ideologists say, we are at wartime conditions and these measures are valid during this period only and won’t be extended beyond the outbreak period.
We will adopt these measures and exemplary penalties will be imposed on all of those who would threaten the results and success we have achieved in this war. Whoever claims that fines and prison sentences are being applied and imposed on the ordinary people only, he or she forgets that these measures are being imposed on certain individuals, not on whole nation. Fines are not imposed on people since people do not violate the law and the rules. If people were to violate the rules, then we would have plunged by know into an abyss that I don’t even think about it and we would have been now counting dozens of dead every day and we wouldn’t have escaped without thousands of dead people. It is exactly because our people respect the law and the people understand very well that no fines are imposed on them. Fines are imposed on the disobedient and irresponsible people, the abusers and those guilty and fines are not applied just to fill the state coffers. There are many who claim that we are collecting money, because the state budget is empty. Not this absolutely not true.
“We own a small business, but we shut down our shop due to the outbreak situation. We applied for the wartime salary, but our application was turned down.”
You will receive $400 under the extended economic package. I repeat, we have turned down no application filed by individuals or businesses that were entitled to benefit under the first support package. This is not a rejection to the pain and the need of the people. It is just the rejections to the wrong sections, as we have clearly stated and reiterated the category of small businesses eligible to benefit under the first support package. You will receive a payment of 400,000 lek or 400 dollars under the extended package.
I would to reiterate that the most recent data I was provided prior to this conversation show that more than 30,000 individuals have so far benefited under the first package, while around 40,000 other individuals will receive the payment in the coming days. It may take some days until verifications on the ground complete and once this process is over, everyone will have this payment transferred to their bank accounts. These funds have been already approved and just need to receive a final approval by the Tax Administration of the Republic of Albania. In the meantime, more than 176,000 people will receive a payment of 400,000 lek. They are entitled to receive such payment for the remaining time until end of May, while I am deeply confident that many of them will be able to start going to work by early May. However, we are committed to paying everyone a payment of $400 dollars under the second extended package in order to give them some more sigh of relief and make sure that nobody is on the edge of survival. Since nobody is currently frequenting bar-cafes, restaurants and they are having no extra expensing incurred, the payment of $400 is sufficient for everyone, despite many complain and claim that people are dying of hunger.
“I own a business I opened in 2020. I happened to work for three weeks only and we shut the business down due to the government orders. I had employed two people.”
You will benefit under the first package. I have already explained that the first package includes also businesses that have been opened this year. All is needed is that the business should have been registered and the social insurance contributions for the two employees paid. You will benefit under the first package. You have closed your business on the orders of the government of the Republic of Albania and the government will not leave you alone. We will leave nobody alone and we will use every opportunity we can afford, although our opportunities are not unlimited ones. The government faces same difficulties, just like every one of you, because our common house is in trouble.
“We live in a village in Vlora and we should pay the interest charge on the electricity bill balance. Yet, we are told to travel to Vlora in order to report and apply with the Power Distribution Operator in order to become eligible to benefit under the government amnesty.”
You will no longer have to pay the interest charge on the electricity bill, because the interest charges have been written off. In the meantime, I will verify the reason why you have been told to report at the office of the Power Distribution Operator. However, you can make any online payment via your smart phone, just like you are doing to access Facebook. You can settle the payment to the Operator via the smart phone.
Guxim Zeneli Zeneli says: “What about us working in a call center that has been closed during this period? Some of us work from home, but others do not have such opportunity and have been staying at home for more a month now. We have received payment for the first 12 days of March only. That was enough for us during this month, but will we benefit a payment under the extended package for the month of April?
I have clearly stated that you and every other worker in similar situation will receive a payment of 400,000 lek or $400 under the extended support package, given that you turn out to be registered on the list of legally employed workers. A total of 176,000 families, including you, will have the payment of 400,000 lek or $400 to your bank accounts without having to go through your employer first. All it takes is just accessing the application sit and you will simply need to confirm you are a call centre worker.
“Last night I heard about resumption of flights to Rome, Italy, starting this Saturday. Will these flights resume just to repatriate the Albanian citizens stranded in Italy or also to allow Albanian emigrants currently stuck in Albania to return to the countries where they live and work?”
This, too, is an issue we are seriously working on, just like everything else. We will soon have a concrete answer as to when we can resume these flights from Albania to other countries. We will provide information in the coming days.
“Will you repatriate our patriots from Venice, Germany and Brussels?”
I don’t know what is going to happen with the patriots, but I know what is going to happen with Albanians, because not every Albanian is a patriot. Meanwhile, one can travel from Venice to Rome once you book the flight and the hotel in line with the conditions due to be unveiled by the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy.
“I would like you to reconsider the issue of the repatriation of Albanians, resident in Albania. We have not been travelling abroad for tourism purposes and we cannot afford paying for hotel accommodation.”
My dear friend, we are working and I believe a reasonable package will be made available. It’s not about big expenses, but the most reasonable of all, to put it more clearly. I understand your situation very well, but do you understand what it would mean – that it is not a matter of 1, 5 or 7 people – to repatriate everyone now, without setting a limit and without doing it gradually? We should care and make sure that all this sacrifice is not made in vain.
“I pay social insurance contributions for 25 years. I have been working in an enterprise during all over these years. Why we are not included in this package of support?”
What for should we help you since you keep working even today, my dear friend? I also keep working and I receive half of my salary. Of course, I am not saying you should do the same. You will receive your salary as always. The cabinet members receive half of their salaries. The Socialist Party lawmakers receive half of their salaries. I am working too, even more than ever, but I will not ask for a reward. You are still working and you should keep doing so, because we can’t ask tell other people that we will use the taxpayers’ money to pay Alban, because, although he is still working, although fortunately nothing has changed in his life, on the contrary he might have saved something more than usually, Alban is requiring assistance. What for?
“What impresses me most is the fact that you don’t mention the transportation sector at all,” Land Marku is saying. “We belong to a category of business that pays a lot in taxes and therefore we are among the hardest-hit ones…”
It is really bizarre and I am surprised how come that although you are directly interested about the transportation sector, yet you haven’t heard and read nothing about this issue, since I have specifically talked about this sector, and not only that, but you are accusing me, claiming that I am not mentioning this sector at all. In fact, the truth is that all those working in small transport businesses are included in the first support package and they will receive entire payment to the last penny. Whereas, all workers in large transport businesses, namely drivers and conductors, will receive a payment of 400,000 lek under the extended support package. Now it is me the one to be surprised that you claim I have never mentioned the transport sector, when it’s quite the opposite.

“I am a student and mother of a child. I live in Tirana. May I get some more help?”
You are a student and you have been already awarded a scholarship payment.
“The only problem of being stranded in Greece is that we face penalties, because, unlike in other countries, authorities here impose fines…” Meleq Mucka says.
We have discussed the matter with the government of Greece that has expressed understanding that no fines will be imposed on all of those who unintentionally have violated the duration of stay rules due to the border closure and the lockdown orders. We have discussed the matter and a Memorandum of Understanding is in force with the Greek government and this is what Greek authorities have pledged. And it seems to me that no fines have been imposed by them. There could be some sporadic cases, but there is a general understanding.
My husband – Tefta Hasanramaj says – works at the industrial market in Vlora. We pay local taxes and tariffs. However, for more than a month no reply has been provided as to what is going to happen with us, since we are unable to go to work.
Those working in local markets and pay insurance contributions will benefit one-time payment of 400,000 lek under the extended support package.
“My wife works as salesperson at a clothing store. She has filed an application for the wartime salary, but it has not been transferred to her bank account.”
Your wife will benefit under the extended support package. She has wrongfully applied for a salary under the first package and she is entitled to benefit under the extended package. Or if no refusal reply has been provided yet, then she could still benefit under the first package and the salary has yet to be transferred to her bank account, but it takes a little patience since it is about a total of 70,000 people and verifications are underway, while around 31 people have received payment to date. Payments are to be transferred to the bank accounts of more than 40,000 other people and I am hopeful the entire process will complete in the next four or five days.
“I am a self-employed Speech-language pathologist. Am I entitled to benefit under this second package?”
If you are a registered self-employed specialist you are definitely part of this package.
“I want you to read and understand, even if only for once,” –Xhensila Muçeku says, – “we want to return to our homeland and not what you want.”
When you are supposed to read and understand that what I really want is for this to end right now as we speak so that you return to Albania even today and not tomorrow. And, since you are currently abroad – although I don’t know where exactly – I would like you to take a look and try to figure out what is going on. Or perhaps you see what is really going on there and understand that is not actually happening in Albania and you think that this a matter of what I really want only? Why should I wish for you not to come back to Albania! Why should I become a target of slurs, insults, swears and insinuations being thrown at me from all sides and which are giving me more than anyone else a headache! Each of you thinks about your own troubles and difficulties, while I should care and share the difficulties of each and every one of you. That’s why I am here, to deal with the difficulties every one of you is facing. No Xhensila, you should right where you are and once borders open you should then follow the procedures, because you must protect not only yourself, but also your family and your country. You should not become a kind of bombs transporter, or, if not infected, come to a …[inaudible] where there are other bomb transporters that can cause calamity. You can keep on throwing slurs, insults and curses, but what I know is that together with you and together with all Albanians I will make sure that Albania escapes unharmed from this war and make sure that Albanians do not mourn thousands of dead. This is what I know.
“When public transport to the country’s districts will reopen?”
It is still too early to talk about this.
“I run a newspaper and magazines shop, but I have closed the shop due to the stay-at-home orders. I benefited no payment under the first package. Would I receive one under the second package?
You didn’t benefit under the first package, but you will receive a payment of 400,000 lek under the second package, if you certainly are registered and if you pay the social insurance contributions.
“What is going to happen with the aesthetical treatment business?”
A little more patience is needed.
“Food prices are soaring and nobody has reacted to date.”
In the social system we have chosen, state is not the one to set prices, but those who provide and sell their goods. Everybody should bear in mind this. It was just yesterday I had a phone conversation with some of my friends living in U.S. and they said that the pandemic crisis is driving up prices.
“The majority of people work in the shadow economy and everybody hoped to rely on your support.”
Could you tell me how the state is supposed to find out who is and is not really working in the shadow economy? Why no country around the world has included those illegally employed in the shadow economy in their support packages? Why do you think I don’t want to help them? Could you name a single prime minister on the planet, or a leader in the history of the world who would have not wished to grant people whatever they want!? Do you wish to grant and provide your children whatever they want? Why you don’t do so? Is that because you don’t wish to do that, or you want to upset and frustrate them?! I am sure you provide them what you can afford. But it is practically impossible to pay those illegally employed. We are providing a payment to over 176,000 people and it wouldn’t be a big deal to include several thousand others, but how are we supposed to identify them? Are we supposed to this via Facebook with everyone claiming to work illegally?! Would such claims via Facebook be evidence that the Albanian taxpayers’ money is provided to you in the form of assistance? To this end, we are making a final effort and make available a reward to everyone who would report the company or the individual they have been working illegally. If you are to say you can’t do this, tell me how we are supposed to address this issue.
“Italy is providing a payment of 400 euros. You should help families, at least …”
I don’t actually know how we could resolve the matter of talking nonsense. Do they deliver cash money to people on the street in Italy? If Italy is paying 400 euros to its citizens, we are paying 400,000 lek, an amount that is a little than 400 euros.
“My parents own a fish shop. Do they benefit under the package?”
Yes, everyone owning a shop and being registered like everyone else is entitled to benefit under the support package. However, it seems to me that fish shops are not affected, just like it is the case with the grocery stores, which have earned a lot more than they used to generate previously. Strangely enough, people are buying more food today than they used to do prior to this war, although everyone keeps complaining that they are short of money. How can this be explained?!
I repeat, all big business workers who have been dismissed or lost their jobs in the previous weeks since this war started will benefit a payment of 400,000 lek.
“Ok, but what is going to happen with the unregistered workers? Could you tell me?”
I can’t tell you, but I would invite you to tell us how are we supposed to establish that you are really a person who used to work illegally and not a fake Facebook profile claiming to have worked illegally. I am saying this because no state can do this. That’s why one should take everything into account when agreeing to take up a job in the shadow economy. That’s why nobody should take up an illegal job and that’s why everyone should report their illegal employer, because there comes a day when they find themselves with no support of whatsoever.
“Is this the solution you offer either to those working illegally and the jobless people?”
I am not a magician. I have no magic wand in my hand, but one thing is for sure, I feel and I live day and night with your troubles and difficulties. As of today, there is no country or a formula that would help me figure out how to help those who turn out to be registered nowhere. If you have such a formula, please make it available and I promise nobody will be denied help.
“Shopping malls have been closed and they have been denied assistance …”
Those working in shopping centres will receive the payment of 400,000 lek under the extended package.
I would conclude this by summarizing as follows;
The first package, which softened the blow of the first wave of the attack by doubling the social assistance payment to all families under the social welfare benefit scheme and paying the so-called wartime salary to all of those who shut down their small businesses immediately and making the pensions indexation. This was the first support package.
As many as 71,000 families receiving social welfare benefit have received double social assistance.
As of today, more than 70,000 small business owners and workers are being paid under the first support package. As many as 31,000 of them have been already paid, while some 40,000 others are being verified. It is a colossal verification process and the payment procedures will complete in the coming days. No such verifications will be needed when the second instalment is transferred to the bank accounts of everyone.
The extended support package includes 100,000 small business owners and workers who will all receive a payment of 400,000 lek, despite they have been allowed to work, but they have been badly damaged and unable to generate income.
Another 66,000 big business workers, who have been dismissed or suspended after being unable to go to  work due to the stay-at-home orders, will receive a payment of 400,000 lek.
Around 10,000 workers in the tourism industry will also benefit a payment of 400,000 lek.
This is the extended support package totalling $70 million.
A total of $70 million for a tiny economy and country like Albania just to provide a payment for a 40-day period until end of May and only those completely unaware of what they are talking about could say this is an insufficient amount in the current conditions and for this category of people, just to give a sigh of relief to our citizens and not pretending to address their life woes.
This is the extended package.
I do whatever I say and I say whatever I can do. This is not a lot, but this is for sure. We are not here to tell fairy tales, we are not here to deceive people, because we will be again here tomorrow and the day after. This is not a matter of votes. This is a matter of dignity, respect for ourselves and respect for the people. Everyone should consider and understand the potential barriers, delays and difficulties, because we are not a robot that does everything, just like many of you tackle everything via the Facebook comments, with some of you having even succeeded in solving mystery of this outbreak by blaming the 5G technology. There are many of you who claim this is merely a game to fool people while the 5G antennas are being installed everywhere. I don’t know what this is all about, but I know this is the biggest idiocy and insanity ever be invented since this catastrophe started. Please don’t involve in such stupid conspiracy theories, but focus on doing one great thing for each other and for Albania!