Tax effect: Bit for 99 per cent import from Serbia

The Kosovo Government's decision on customs duty to products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina initially 10 percent and then 100 percent is in effect since November last year.

Kosovo Customs spokesperson Adriatic Stavileci tells Radio Free Europe that since the establishment of this tax, there has been movement of imports of products from other countries.

“Since the establishment of a 100 per cent tax on products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, there have been import movements from other countries. Largely in this movement leads up to 40 percent of imported Albania, and there is an increase in products originating from Macedonia by 15 percent. Germany is among the European Union countries, then countries like Slovenia, Croatia. We have also had increased import from Bulgaria and Italy”, Stavileci says.

Before the deployment of the 100 per cent customs heel, Serbia was the largest exporter of products in Kosovo.

This state per day has exported goods worth about 1.2m euros to Kosovo, so far, according to Stavileci, on a daily basis exports goods worth about 80,000 euros.

“Now we have an import decline from Serbia for 99 percent. There are times when we have zero imports of products from this country every day. If we had 1.2m euros a day ago imported from Serbia, now average 7 to 8 thousand euros. Import from Serbia is mostly raw and a small share of products that pay 100 per cent of the tax”, Stavileci said.