Majority approves returned excise tax law without changes

TIRANA, April 25 – The ruling majority has approved the law on excise taxes for a second time without making any changes after the President returned it for further review in Parliament two weeks ago. The law received only the majority’s 73 votes while the opposition Socialist Party walked out of Parliament.
Edmond Spaho, the chairman of the parliamentary economy committee, said the law did not violate the Stabilization and Association Agreement as the President argued when he returned the law for review.
The approval for the second time by Parliament means the law will automatically enter into force. President Topi said the he did not decree the law approved on March 24 by majority members of Parliament because the changes ran counter to Albania’s SAA, imposing new customs duties for imports and exports and discriminating Albanian producers.
“Apart from raising costs for the domestic industry, this law could also bring negative effects on the people employed in this industry, who could lose their jobs,” said the president in his motivation.
The regulatory changes to the law were made after the signing of a 10-year concession contract with Switzerland’s Sicpa which earlier this year won a tender to produce and establish a tax stamps control system on tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical products.
The business community, especially beer producers had also opposed changes to the law, saying it increased costs for local breweries by at least 15 percent and endangered the domestic beer industry which has invested 80 million euros, mainly from loans taken by commercial banks.
The American Chamber of Commerce also opposed the changes to the law, saying that the changes and the concession agreement were not preceded by a discussion with representatives of the affected industries.
The set price for excise stamps or safety codes for tobacco, spirits/wine and beer at respectively 20 euros, 32 euros and 22 euros per 1,000 stamps, without including VAT and other taxes that will be paid by the taxpaying companies, means excise will increase over 10 percent.