PDK: Sovereign Fund to bring consequences to Kosovo economy

At the beginning of June of this year, the Kosovo government had adopted the draft bill for the Sovereign Fund.

Just a few days later, exactly on June 13th, the same one was voted in the first reading pane.

The same is expected to be put to the polls at Thursday's second reading session.

For the Sovereign Fund, the Constitutional decision to pardon property tax, postpone population registration and other issues has spoken in an interview with Front Online, deputy The PDK, once chairman of the Commission for Economy, Ferat Shala.

He has said the Democratic Party of Kosovo will vote against the draft law on the Sovereign Fund.

According to him, laws that have a serious or substantial impact on the economy are being worked quickly and that such laws are being made with certain ideas that are completely non-religious.

Shala, has shown what this bill is up against.

“The Sovereign Fund now draft-law conflicts with many principles of free market economy, conflicts with the principle of competition, conflicts with the principle of current legislation in power, conflicts with the principle of national resource management such as mining resources, but also conflicts with the principle of transforming social property because the assets of the AKP, public companies and many other assets that could be the catalyst of economic development are ignored. And so, as it's supposed to be within a politically centralised framework, that's the centralised economy that has already shown across the globe as the failed economy”, he has declared.

MP Shala has indicated that PDK does not vote on this bill and that they are considering sending it to Constitution.

No, we can't vote on this. I can even say with full responsibility that expert groups are analyzing it in detail and can end up in Constitutional. However, we have expressed our public stances and opposed the adoption of this law because I said it is not a developmental law, it is a law that will bring more consequences to the country's economy”, Shala said.

A week earlier, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has ruled in favour of the Government in terms of the pardoning of taxes on property.

Under this decision, municipalities should decide on their own to pardon property taxes and that the law contested by municipalities is not contrary to the law of local government.

While, the government has given municipalities deadlines to decide by December 8th of this year for the pardon of property tax.

But the mayors have complained that, according to them, if the government does not repay them for the forgiveness of 100 euros, they will be damaged.

In this regard the MP PDK, Ferat Shala in an interview for Front Online, has said the government is showing selective on local powers where opposition parties lead.

“The government has had and has financial means, has had and has alternative legal access to whether it is intended to subsidise the planned local governments or citizens, those who are tax taxpayers on property, but not directly punish its own local governments budget, where they will have a big problem with the realisation of planned short-term projects, why not even long-term, and in this statement it is understood that the Finance Ministry is following sufficient means in its portfolio is already making such games, such a vehicle that has complicated the situation of the local budget, the 25x-long-term, and in this statement has been published by Parliament for Online.

He says the government should remuntrate municipalities.

There is no logic either economic or legal to forgive part of the financial means which are directly part of the municipal budget. So the government would have to if it had that healthy idea to repay them because those tools are destined for local government”, he added.

On November 22nd, the Kosovo government has decided to postpone population registration until April of next year.

Annie, why the same was meant to start on November 1st of this year.

For PDK deputy Ferat Shala postponing this process, except that it is bad news, it also affects the issue of economic, social and human planning and operation.

According to him, Prime Minister Albin Kurti is doing so for political interests.

There is both economic and social cohesion in this relationship and political. And, the latter, the prime minister is trying to use it and postpone it much more for the country's narrow political interests”, it has indicated.

But, it says the figures that will emerge from the census will be covered by the Government with visa liberalisation.

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He has said he is sceptical that in the coming year economic growth will take place.

And that's because there's been a low rate in capital investments this year.

Why does he say the tools are enough, but they're going to social categories by means of aid?

There's a lot of years, but all go to social categories through aid. It means we're relatively skeptical about the trend of economic growth because we're not looking at the seriousness of planning, the distribution of resources, in capital investments, in the absorption of strategic investors, we're not looking at the seriousness of lifting sanctions that the international mechanisms actually placed on us”, he added.

MP Shala says he expects this government to change in order to remove sanctions from the European Union, on the contrary next year, there will be regrass.

When the European Union and the largest economic states, the economic power to impose economic development sanctions on funds, it's definitely like saying the great logical abnormalities to think we're going to have an economic development. We expect, in order to change this government, we expect to lobby more and be disciplined in international co-operation, we expect that European Union sanctions will be eased and that somewhere around 300m euros will be unblocked, which are funds blocked, we expect access to foreign investors. On the contrary, we'd have regras”, Shala said among other things.