Parliament’s Economy Commission approves reduction of VAT on tourism facilities
Reduction of VAT for accommodation units from 20% to 6% will make this sector to be seen as a priority and will also result in increased investments.
While introducing the draft to the Parliamentary Commission of Economy, Finance Minister Arben Ahmetaj said that the government’s initiative aims, besides improving service, enhancing the international image of Albania by including it in regional tourist packages.
In recent years, tourism sector has had a special attention by the Albanian government, as one of the priority sectors in relation to the country’s economic development.
According to the Hoteliers Association statistics, this decision will affect 3,900 accommodation units, including hotels, motels and accommodation houses.
Presently, the country boasts an accommodation capacity of 60 thousand beds.
Despite the fact that this bill is expected to have a negative impact on the state budget revenues in the section “Income from VAT”, it is also expected to bring a positive impact in the increase of revenues from the development of tourism sector.
Because tourism sector includes a range of services, in addition to hotels, for example, restaurants or other similar services, the calculation of the effect is approximate.
Calculations show that the negative effect on the budget would be roughly around ALL 1.1 billion, considering VAT tax collected from the tourism sector operators in 2016.
SCAN
*Material i përgatitur nga portali SCAN. Ripublikimi mund të bëhet vetëm kundrejt citimit të autorësisë dhe burimit origjinal.