The General Tax Administration warns such inspections will continue during the whole year especially in the construction sector where coastal areas will be the target
TIRANA, May 7 – Albania’s tax administration has identified 234 companies involved in tax evasion, mainly in the construction and transport sectors, during controls carried out in recent months. In a statement, the General Tax Directorate says it has carried out inspections in 40 construction companies operating in Tirana, where irregularities were identified with their declaration with tax authorities. Authorities say they are still verifying the companies’ bill of quantities, their involvement in informal constructions, and the payment of social security for 1,000 workers.
Meanwhile, controls carried out in the transport sector showed 212 operators were involved in tax evasion and fined a total of 12 million lek. Most violations included lack of tax receipts for international passenger transport, and lack of taximeters in taxi service operators.
The General Tax Administration warns such inspections will continue during the whole year especially in the construction sector where coastal areas will be the target. Controls in the transport sector will continue with strict monitoring of main road axes. The fines imposed on tax evasion considerably improved performance in the tax collection for April 2012. The tax administration says it has collected an extra 360 million lek for the first four months of this year meeting VAT and social security indicators.
The inspections come after total government revenues during the first three months of this year grew by only 1.2 percent to 78.4 billion lek year-on-year failing to meet government targets by 5 percent or 4 billion lek (Euro 28.5 million). The value added tax and excise taxes, two of the key indicators measuring domestic consumption and accounting for almost half of total government revenues, grew by only 0.8 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, failing to meet targets by 5 percent each during the first quarter of 2012, according to Finance Ministry data.
