TIRANA, July 5 /ATA/ –By I. Vata/ – The main opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Jorida Tabaku alleged Tuesday that a financial and legal amnesty bill proposed by the government was designed “to launder proceeds of illegal activities.”
The opposition lawmaker said that the government claims that the fiscal amnesty bill would serve Albanian hard-working emigrants as it would legalize their undeclared assets and money generated through unreported employment.
“Cabinet members claim that emigrants and not corrupt officials will benefit under the legal and financial amnesty. Are they reliable? A little, if not at all! Unfortunately, emigrants are being used as a disguise to cover up the government’s true goal, namely the legalization of ill-gotten earnings not from emigrants, but from people who have violated the law. Such inequalities have turned Albania into a paradise of dishonesty while depriving it of talent and the ability to generate new ideas serving the capital and the economy. What I worry about is that the hard-working Albanians seeking to develop technological ideas and innovations are taxed up to 23%, while those who work dishonestly are taxed 7% only and are granted legal amnesty. What worries the EU most is that Albania may become not only the paradise of Albanian convicts, but also to the paradise of foreigners seeking fiscal and criminal amnesty,” Tabaku said.
According to her, the most recent reaction from the European Commission simply affirms doubts that the draft law is designed to pardon not the hard work of emigrants, but dishonesty.
Government has proposed a financial and legal amnesty for people who legalise undeclared assets worth up to two million euros by paying a tax that ranges from five to ten per cent, with no obligation to reveal the source of the assets.
/r.e/
