Tax Administration: Bankers Petroleum, among the big debtor companies in Albania

TIRANA, Sept. 14 – More than 18,500 companies, including leading companies, owe Albania’s tax administration a huge 147 billion lek (about €1.1 billion), according to the General Tax Directorate. Among the debtor companies is also Bankers Petroleum, the country’s largest oil production company, which in mid-2016 was acquired by a Chinese company after being operated for more than a decade by a Canadian company. The debts are apparently related to a late 2011 tax dispute with the Albanian government which escalated in late 2015 with the freeze of the company’s bank accounts and the initiation of Arbitration proceedings. The initial…