Custom duties for imports from non-European Union countries may have doubled or tripled, due to recent modifications in the method of tariff collections, reports the local press (Korrieri, Tirana Observer, Shekulli, Libertas 15.07.2009). After a recent increase in excise taxes, the government is looking to raise revenue and may shortly present a whole set of drafts for tax increases, believes Korrieri. Notification of custom duty increases for non-EU imports was not given to businesses. The decision is reported to have been reached by the Customs Directory some time last Friday (10th of July 2009) and to have been transformed into an ordinance by the general Director of Customs.
This ordinance provides that custom duties for goods coming from non-EU countries will be paid on the basis of the weight of the goods and not on the basis of imported value. This will double or triple custom duties according to businessmen affected by such imports, who believe that for a container of imports from China custom duties will now amount to almost 5 million Albanian Lek (ALL), instead of nearly 2 million ALL which was the former cost. Over the last few days a number of importers are reported to have left imported goods at customs’ points waiting for a possible change in the policies of the Ministry of Finance.
The newspapers believe the present and the future fiscal policies of the government are to be oriented by the need for cash. “The increase of the trade deficit obliges a government increase in taxes” suggests the Albanian-language daily, Tirana Observer (15.07.2009). According to official data, the government collected 8 billion ALL less than expectations in the first five months of 2009, while it spent 4.1 billion ALL more than programmed, reminds Korrieri (15.07.2009), which calculates the budgetary deficit to have increased 31 % more than was foreseen.
The free trade agreement with EU countries has made collection of custom duties shrink, observes the newspaper. The majority of the imports to Albania arrive from EU countries (mainly Italy, Greece and Germany). Even in the coming years, the trend of the decrease of custom duties from enforcement of trade agreements will continue.
What changes and how the system works
What changes is the mode of tariff collection. Tariffs which were formerly based on units, will from now on be based on weight. Officials from the Ministry of Finance estimate that, “The Customs have made a connection between value and weight of goods, in order to avoid abuse from importers and custom officers, because in many
