TIRANA, Nov.21- Konfindustria has protested the reference salary implementation which, according to the association, is harming business interests. After the list of salaries for each category has been declared, tax authorities have undertaken an aggressive campaign to penalize businesses that do not comply with the official list. This action has been denounced by industrial producers, which have called it an end of year plan to fill up state registers. A representative of Konfindustria, Gjergj Buxhuki, explains that sometimes these fines have been completely arbitrary.
Reference salaries
One month ago, the administration approved a decision to implement reference salaries for businesses in a move to attempt to formalize the labor market. The government has prepared a long list with professions according to category and district for the private sector. The fines have been implemented after business has continued to pay employees according to previous schemes. Konfindustria has argued that this measure, according to all data, does not fight informality. “The reference salary system implemented by the executive addresses only the effects and not the causes of the problem of fiscal evasion and, hence, is not the right measure to fight the problem. Instead, this turns into a punitive measure for production business,” Konfindustria said.
Annulment
Konfindustria has asked that this law should be postponed in order for more clear sub-acts and legal acts to be produced which address the issue. “Otherwise we will risk an increase in the informality levels for labor markets, which will undermine the fight against it and also cause higher corruption levels,” Buxhuku said.
