VAT removal for grains would cost $ 8 million

TIRANA, Feb.12- Pressure from the business community is being directed towards the government in order for it to consider the temporary lifting of the Value Added Tax on grain products to keep bread prices at bay. The Finance Ministry is examining several schemes through which the cost of bread can be kept at a more acceptable level. Some experts say that the government is also considering lowering taxes on burning fuel that bread bakeries use. The losses to state revenues from the removal of the VAT on grains would total $8 million. This is the estimation if the time limit would be five months. Industrialists have committed to the removal of 100 percent of the VAT on the price. This would lead to a return of the price of bread to 750 lek per kg. The IMF has previously opposed such measures of interfering with the VAT.