20m euros less imports of products from Serbia since tax decision

Once the value of import from Serbia, in just one day it has been 1.2m euros, while since 6 November, when the decision by the Government of Kosovo is made to raise the 100 per cent tax on goods originating from Serbia, import is only 140 thousand euros.

Since making the decision to raise the fee, its effect is that import value has dropped for 20m euros.

Of these measures, Kosovo Customs officials say the value of import from Serbia is very low.

Kosovo Customs spokesman Adriatic Stavileci tells Kosovo that 2 to 3 thousand euros have been about 48 shipments for import of raw materials.

“rracation between the two periods, between November 2017 and 2018, where the government has taken protective measures, shows that the decline in import value from Serbia is 20m euros to this moment”, Stavileci has said.

He has shown that import from Serbia has fallen only after 100 per cent.

Dogana's spokesman has shown that on November 6th the application of a 10 per cent safeguard clause, which has been about two weeks, and in the first week with 10 per cent tax, there has been a continuation of regular import, even in spite of the 10 per cent mass, while in the second week there has been a reduction of imports.

After applying the second move of 100 per cent, on November 21st, we have noted total import stagnation from Serbia. If, once in a day, around 1.2m euros of products have been imported from Serbia, it has now dropped to several hundred euros. Because in the first two weeks of the 100 per cent mass application, we have noted that we have had only 140 thousand euros of imports from Serbia. That's a very minimal value. All these imports have been of very low value, 2 ė 3 thousand euros have been around 48 remittances, which have paid this tax since it was also raw material”, Stavileci said.

However, after this decision on Serbian goods, there have been several smuggled food products.

So far, during these two weeks we've had seizures of smuggling, there's been some smuggling with different products. There has been smuggling with eggs, smuggling with food products, but it hasn't been at the disturbing level of”, he stressed.

He has said, among other things, that after the MTI minister's decision, about 17 trucks have returned to Serbia, with products having inscriptions “Kosovo Metohiju”.