TIRANA, March 19 /ATA/ Minister of Finance and Economy, Delina Ibrahimaj, stated on Saturday that the government will introduce other support packages depending on how the situation will play out.
“It is a period marked by the word resilience and affects all actors. Now is the time to show solidarity and make a prioritization, but above all for composed decision-making. We have drawn up a package. We have decided to support farmers with tax-free diesel fuel, as well as public transport, ” said Minister Ibrahimaj.
The Minister said that on the other hand we have asked for solidarity from another part of the business, who are affected by the soaring price of fuel, but can afford it.
“The rationale behind the solidarity package we have drawn up is that whoever earns more pays more,” she said.
According to her, the increase in the price of electricity affects all categories, individuals, business and budget.
“But we have decided to offset the cost of energy for families and small businesses. We have to import energy and the price in the bill of each household and small business is three times lower than the one we pay, ” said the minister.
She also elaborated on the fiscal incentives that apply to farmers.
“Farmers are exempt from taxes in our system, not only standard taxes, VAT and profit tax, it also applies to small business unlike all of Europe. Other than that, farmers have a lower cost of social security either. Most of the farmers’ pensions are subsidized from the state budget. Farmers on the other hand are exempt from the agricultural land tax. A farmer in all countries all over the world has to pay this tax. Meanwhile most farmers do not pay irrigation taxes,” said the minister.
“We do not generate profits, we collect taxes and reallocate them,” she said.
The Minister said that the Social Resilience Package provides for a subsidy of 3 thousand ALL for low pensions with most of the beneficiaries living in the village, where the lowest pensions are.
Ibrahimaj informed that there will be an indexation of pensions and that the measure will be at the level of inflation in February and not according to the basic rule which is the average of the prior year.
Ibrahimaj announced that traders and agricultural pharmacies will sit down at the table with the government to figure out what profit margins they will apply, so that the cost of uncertainty does not go to the farmer.
/sm/
