The state ark for six months collected around 900m euros

According to Kosovo Government projections, from customs revenues for the country's budget this year, more than 1.2 billion euros must be collected, while Kosovo Tax Administration will raise over 500m euros.

Kosovo Customs spokesman Adriatic Stavileci told Radio Free Europe they expect to overcome the Kosovo Government's forecasts on the collection of revenues for 2019. It suggests that from January to now, they have managed to raise over 600m euros.

Kosovo's “Dogan, not only this year, but also over the past years, has managed to overcome predictions. Until the same time period of January July, July, 585m euros were collected this year, up to 615 million. So we have a 30m-euro increase”.

“In terms of projections, by the end of the year 1.2 billion euros must be collected and we believe that we are on a good track, and by the end of December we will meet 99 percent or 101 percent in the project provided by the Government of Kosovo at the beginning of January 2019”, Stavileci says.

It shows that the 100 per cent tax imposed by the Government of Kosovo on products originating from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina has also had effects on revenue collection.

Stavileci explains that in a short time, products coming from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were replaced by products coming from other countries, which, according to him, prevented the decline of revenues.

We cannot avoid the effects tax has caused. A large portion of the goods which have come from Serbia have been replaced with imports from other countries. One aspect that has affected the tax is that with Serbia we have only had the State Value Tax and we haven't had customs duties, while goods from other countries have had customs duties, but in most of the imports that have been replaced were from the European Union, which is still influenced by the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, meaning reduced customs duty”, he points out.

Good performance in the collection has also shown the Kosovo Tax Administration. Days ago during a media conference, ATK director Ilir Murtezaj has indicated that revenues from taxes for the six-month period have reached the value of 239.5m euros.

He has stressed that, compared to 2018, 19.5m euros more have been collected.

“One of the key elements that has influenced the growth of revenues concerns the collection of debts and activities related to fighting tax evasion”, Murtezaj said.

Finance Minister Bedri Hamza, meanwhile, has declared that Kosovo has a stable macro-fiscal position and that the revenue trend is in line with plans.

He has said he is optimistic that predictions in the collection of revenues for the state's ark will be realised.

If we refer to cash ready to account, the situation is improving not that it has weakened, and we don't have a delay in any payments, pensions, other social issues, salaries or capital projects. The state has para”, Hamza said.

Kosovo's Tax Administration and Customs are the main contributors to the state budget, which this year totals 2.3 billion euros.