TIRANA, Oct  31 /ATA/ Excise collection revenue in 2023 are projected to reach 59 billion ALL.

Referring to the report of the 2023 draft budget, which has already been submitted to parliament for discussion, excise revenue will be 4 billion ALL or 7.3% more than the projections for 2022.

MoFE says that the main factors that will drive the expected increase in excise revenue are increase in the import of fuel and cigarettes, as well as the fight against informality, through tightened control of excise subjects and disciplining further procedures for exemptions and refunding as well as the effects of the fiscal package.

The fiscal package for 2023 includes a host of proposals for several changes to the law “On excise duties.”

The changes in excise duty are designed to fulfill the obligations in the process of approximating the legislation of our country with that of the EU and the transposition of the relevant Directives, specifically the Directive on indirect taxation on excise products.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy, in the framework of the implementation of the strategy for saving energy and subsidizing the price of solar panels, has proposed the removal of excise duty for accumulators of solar panels and batteries for electric vehicles. This measure has a negative effect of ALL 50 million on the budget.

It also proposes changes to the beer excise tax, consisting in its unification for the categories of industrial producers. This harmonization has been a constant request in the discussions of the Albania-EU subcommittee on trade, industry, taxes and customs.

The excise duty is unified at the level of 710 Lek HL, or 7.1 Lek per 1 liter of beer, while until now, beer produced by plants with a capacity of less than 200 thousand HL per year, was subject to an excise duty of 360 Lek/hl, or 3.6 Lek per liter.

The unification also leads to simplification of the excise duty calculation, leaves no space for abuse and has an effect on the approximation of legislation before Albania’s entry into the EU.

This change will have an effect of 262 million ALL, which will be 184 million ALL on the country’s production and 78 million ALL on import.

Also, this tariff change would also help local companies to increase production and be more competitive in the region. /j.p/sm/