TIRANA, Sept. 9 – As the nationwide campaign against economic informality and tax evasion intensifies, the country’s national registration centers continue facing long lines of people rushing to register their informal businesses, the overwhelming majority of which are micro and small family-owned businesses.
The long queues to comply with tax authorities and install cash registers started last August when Prime Minister Edi Rama announced a tough nationwide campaign to curb informality, estimated at around 30 percent of the country’s GDP.
Vasilika Vjero, the head of the National Registration Centre says some 4,847 new businesses registered last August, seven times more compared to a year ago. The influx continued in the first days of September when a record 2,533 new businesses registered in only three days.
“Our appeal is register, legalize, install cash registers and don’t sell without issuing fiscal receipts,” Vjero said.
Some 600 groups of tax inspectors backed by police officers have started carrying out field inspections in a bid to give an end to widespread informality.
The move has caused concern among businesses, which face heavy fines and seizure of goods, should they be found in breach of regulations.
“The fight against informality will be the focus of this third 300-day period in power and will harmonize since the beginning operations among the customs and tax administrations, the Labor Inspectorate and State Police,” Prime Minister Edi Rama warned ahead of the start of the nationwide campaign in early September.
