Over 350 thousand euros per year of online purchases

Over 350 thousand euros have been collected in the past year from tax payments owed for remittances Kosovo citizens have ordered online to different European and world states, Kosovo Customs officials say.

With all this value, the trend of online purchases by Kosovo citizens is said to have marked decline compared to the last two years. Out of about 250 thousand mail shipments in 2016, last year in Kosovo have reached over 230 thousand shipments, Kosovo Post officials announce.

Products that are mostly bought online in various countries of the world are clothing and technique, the Kosovo Post Transit Centre manager Rifat Alaj tells Radio Free Europe.

The physical volume was 249 thousand pieces of online delivery in January (January 8, 2016), which was larger than in 2015. During 2017, however, it was 234 thousand pieces, so it is less than 14,000 or is expressed in percentage, 6 percent less than in 2016”, says Alay, adding that the reason for the fall of mail transport seems to be the low limit of delivery.

Kosovo Customs spokesman Adriatic Stavileci, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, shows that for each shipment bought via the internet, amounting to over 22 euros, the recipient is obliged to pay about 30 percent of the product price.

However, it shows that more than 350,000 euros have been collected last year from various shipments that have been distributed at post offices.

“Dogana deals only with those remittances that exceed the 22 euro limit. There's been a huge number over 100,000. After that amount is passed by two paying taxes; it is a 10 percent customs tax; and the 18 percent Standard Tax, both of which are about 30 percent of the value of the product”, Stavileci explains.

Otherwise, Rifat Alay of Kosovo Post says 90 percent of online shipments arrive via air routes, initially stop in Albania and then reach Kosovo.

This is about the fact that most of the products ordered come from states that have not recognised Kosovo's independence.

“Kina, Hong Kong, Singapore these states have not recognised Kosovo's independence, and because of this Kosovo does not figure as a state on their billboards and orders come through Albanian posts. When the citizen orders in these states, except the exact address in Kosovo, the state of Albania must certainly write, as remittances pass through the Albanian state”, Alay explains.

Virtual stores from various countries in the world are now recognised by many Kosovo citizens. They say buying through the internet and achieving delivery through postal service at home saves time and money, as you can buy items cheaper than in the local market. Women are the ones who mostly use this service. Frozen with on-line shopping is Blerina Azemi from Pristina.

She says she has sometimes bought online, but putting the tax on every purchase for over 22 euros has in some cases forced her not to buy the product she likes, but someone that is under taxable. At times, though, he has also been depressed by the accepted shipment.

I buy a lot online because I can get products cheaper than on the Kosovo market, then I don't waste any time. But online purchase also has its own shortcomings. There are times when the product in the picture looks better than when it reaches”, says Blerina Azem.

Even in Kosovo some private companies are applying online services of various products, goods mostly imported from different parts of the world. But the shipments from these companies to the person who ordered them can be delivered by day or week.