Taxation head replaced

TIRANA, Aprl.25- Alfred Prifti, head of the taxation department, also resigned Tuesday. Finance Minister Ridvan Bode said that Prifti resigned because of the great intensive work in the post. Prifti will likely be moved to another post but the minister did not name any other potential candidate for the post. Bode said that as a result of Prifti’s good work the government budget had a surplus of 3.6 billion leks during the first quarter this year. The government also nominated Gerta Picari as head of the taxation department to replace Alfred Prifti. Picari has been head of the Institute of Statistics and a post of macro-economic and fiscal policies at the Finance Ministry. Gazeta Shqip newspaper also reported Thursday that Perparim Dervishi of the Customs has also been fired but authorities are expecting to find someone to replace him. The paper says eight other top directors of the customs will move from their posts.