Fiscal Peace, the IMF and a little history

2025-11-14 13:36:00, Editorial CNA

Prime Minister Rama has been heavily advertising what he calls Fiscal Peace. So, an act that, translated into simpler words, is a pardon that the government makes mainly for uncollectible debts in the past 5 to 10 years.

So, this is more called a registry cleaning, which frees taxes, customs, and other institutions that collect revenue from obligations that cannot be collected.

For this, businesses are being asked to self-declare, to be pardoned, to pay a lower percentage, so that the state can collect what it can from what it cannot collect. Edi Rama calls it Fiscal Peace.

Fiscal Peace/ Rama: Forgiveness for enterprises with arrears
November 7, 1:12 PM

On the other hand, the IMF comes out and reacts. In fact, this is not the first case that has happened in Albania. It happened once in 2011, for which the then government asked to make a full fiscal amnesty, which Prime Minister Edi Rama, at that time the head of the opposition, and his supporters did not vote for.

Since an amnesty could not be achieved without a qualified constitutional majority, it was chosen for the then majority, the Democrats, to grant a debt forgiveness, let's call it a fiscal peace.

Furthermore, for a certain amount of money, they could be declared without giving their source after they were deposited in the bank, but in fact, the part of the criminal article that should have been removed from the Code was not removed.

In the end, a debt cancellation ended, with a major campaign carried out at the time by the Albanian government. This was later repeated by the socialist government, which has only one change in its actions, simply increasing the debts it requires a little more.

Fiscal Peace/ IMF raises concerns about risks
November 14, 1:32 PM

So, if the Democrats then made the property declaration and revaluation tax 1%, or the debt forgiveness tax 3% and up to 5%, the Socialists have now increased it to higher values, 5 or 10%, given that they also have higher taxation.

So, we don't have a true fiscal peace, we don't have a true fiscal amnesty. We simply have a cancellation of obligations and debts.

The government has repeated these practices, the socialists did it a few years ago, and now they are repeating it. And this is simply a move to erase uncollectible debts from the registers.

Fiscal Peace is being reviewed, 5% tax for businesses that will re-evaluate 5 years' declarations
November 12, 07:22

And the IMF's reaction seems very funny, perhaps bureaucrats and officials who sit in offices and do not know that this is not the first case that has happened in Albania. And in previous cases the IMF has not been against it, although it usually has such positions.

The Albanian government is doing a great job of trying to free businesses from obligations they cannot pay, and the administration from those they cannot collect.

But what Albania and business need most is not simply a fiscal peace in quotes, but a real amnesty after 35 years of a democratic system that has gone through both taxes, with a state, without a state, with taxes, without taxes.

Fiscal peace/ Rama: It will increase revenues for the budget coffers, here are the key points
October 24, 16:27

We recall here '92 with the fall of the dictatorial system, then '97, the collapse of the state, the arrival of the democrats, the arrival of the socialists, the strong fiscal movements.

What Albania needs more than a "so-called fiscal peace" is a true fiscal amnesty to bring every account, every business, every income to zero. And this would greatly help and liberate the country's economy.

Of course, this should not include money obtained from human or drug trafficking.

So, we are talking about a fiscal amnesty for business, for undeclared income, for tax evasion and more./ CNA