Statement by Minister of Finance Arben Ahmetaj, after the meeting of the Council of Ministers:

Hello!

The government passed today a very important decision that is directly connected to the large fiscal package aimed at mitigating procedures that the government and Prime Minister Rama have presented to the public and the business community. The decision in question “On an amendment of the decision nr. 953 of 2014” concenrs the value added tax in the Republic of Albania, i.e. the implementation of provisions. It has changed fundamentally one of the procedures that until now may have been a prohibitive procedure.

Until today, the automatic refund was benefited within 30 days only by those businesses that were 100% an export enterprise. The change consists in the fact that now also those businesses that are 50% an export enterprise will benefit from the automatic refund, because the barrier that has existed to date for the reimbursement of VAT on export will be removed.

More specifically, if until yesterday only 100% export enterprises would from benefit automatic tax refund even when they were under tax audit, today all enterprises that have a turnover in export that exceeds 50% of their overall turnover will benefit automatic refund of reimbursable VAT without any obstacle, even when they are under tax audit.

To explain it more simply to exporters, they will receive a VAT refund within 30 days even if tax audit are performing control in their business, either for reimbursement or other controls. To date, only 12.3% of businesses would benefit from the automatic refund in exports under these conditions. In addition, I want to announce that 2515 export subjects were recorded by the end of 2015. Until yesterday, only 300 enterprises benefited automatic VAT refund without any condition within 30 days. Today, following this change by the government, 1050 enterprises or 40% of the total of exporters will benefit, which means a giant leap in facilitating procedures and this procedure, which has been repeatedly required by exporters. This is another direct mitigating measure of the Albanian government for the enterprise and exporters in the country. It complies with the intention of the government and of the prime minister to support Albanian exporters of Albanian goods.

I take this opportunity to share with you that on June 20 we concluded a broad consultation process with entrepreneurship and our partners in the country on the draft to simplify tax and procedures customs in favour of the entrepreneurship.

I am very pleased that in more than two months we collected over 400 proposals and suggestions of the enterprise, which directly affect more than 50 procedures. The final draft will be ready very soon to be submitted to the government, and with this step we really open a new chapter to improve the business climate.

The Albanian economy is finally moving to the second stage of its development. We have left  the crisis behind, and have entered a very consolidated trend of economic growth; we have closed and cleaned all the holes that we inherited from the previous government, and this package and the simplification of procedures clearly show that the Albanian economy has now entered a cycle, which we hope will be long, of sustainable economic growth.

Thank you!