Tax increases import of goods through rail transport

For the first six months of this year, according to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, 153 thousand tonnes of different goods have been transported by train, which compared to the same period last year represents an 59 percent increase.

According to representatives of the business community and business businessmen in Kosovo, one of the reasons for the increase that train transport is linked to more favourable financial expenses. But the main reason, the main issue, is designed to be a 100 per cent tax imposed by the Government of Kosovo on imports from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has forced businesses to avoid importing from these two countries and to find new supply markets in the European Union countries.

The goods that are transported mostly through rail transport by train are nikel oils, then wood products, and others, which mainly come from Germany, Slovenia and Croatia, the Free Europe Radio, Behxhet Haziri, spokesman for the company “TRAINCOS”

One of the companies that uses the railway line is the company “Etika” from Suhareka, which deals with the sale of laminate, doors and windows.

The owner of this company, Adrian Hoxhaj, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, shows that he imports Laminas from the state of Germany using the railway infrastructure, because, he says, he has lower financial costs.

Our company transports by train, because it is cheaper and we carry a greater amount, which cannot be transported by trucks. Transport is accomplished by the state of Germany, since there we have found the most appropriate market”, Hoxhaj said.

Business community representatives, meanwhile, stress that the reason for increasing the amount of products imported through railway transport also connects with the 100 percent tax on products of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Agim Sahin, chairman of the Kosovo Alliance for Business, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, says that after the tax is introduced, the price of transporting goods from Serbia and Bosnia has increased, so businesses as a more favourable alternative use transport exploitation via railway lines for importing goods from other European countries.

This is precisely why because many products that have been delivered from Serbia have been replaced by products from European Union countries and that they are being carried through railway transport. The financial cost of railway transport is cheaper, despite long-term reactions, and delays are higher”, Sahin tells Radio Free Europe.

Otherwise, railway infrastructure in Kosovo currently continues to face a poor situation. Binaris, plant buildings, flares, then railway operations, locomotives, passenger cars are outdated.

The speed of trains, due to technical conditions on the current lines, can take place at 30 miles [50 km] per hour, while with railway renovations, trains will circulate up to 150 miles per hour.

Modernising railway infrastructure would increase the transport of goods, says Agim Sahini, under which, despite the growth of train goods, this alternative is used minimally because of poor infrastructure.

But businesses have this weakness because Kosovo's railways have currently failed to provide different services to different economic operators, and this has led businesses to navigate either at different ports, such as Durres, Thessaloniki or Tivar, and from there to carry goods with different trucks. In the past, railways have taken an important place in the development of the country's economy, transportation and increased competitiveness of many economic operators, who have used railways as cheaper transportation opportunities.

Early this year, rehabilitation of the first railway segment in the relationship, Pristina- Hani Ilez, on the border with Macedonia, is expected to end in 2021.

Meanwhile, it has been warned that soon the second line, which includes Pristina's railway network Leshak, on the border with Serbia.