E fundit!

13:08 TODAY

Murder of the officer/ Enea Mekolli's uncle raises accusations: They were without any kind of protection

The uncle of the murdered officer, Enea Mekolli, Hazbi Mek...

Brewers are expected to turn to Strasbourg for the repeal of the double excise duty

2024-10-21 07:25:00, Ekonomi CNA

Brewers are expected to turn to Strasbourg for the repeal of the double excise

After the dismissal of the lawsuit by the Constitutional Court, the brewers are expected to turn to the Strasbourg Court for the repeal of the excise law.

The legal representative of the Association of Producers and Traders of Alcoholic Beverages, Sajmir Laçej, and the Chairman of the Association of Albanian Craft Microbeers, Xhim Begeja, told Monitor that if the new fiscal package does not reflect the changes in the excise duty level, they will be addressed with a lawsuit to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Lawyer Sajmir Laçej says that after the decision to double the excise duty, manufacturers are facing several facts:

As the decline of domestic production, the increase in the weight of import beer up to 60% and the disregard of the European Directive, from a country seeking to join the EU, for the application of the reduced fee to small producers, and maintaining the level of excise duty as European countries.

"It would be good if the 2025 fiscal package reflects the opinion of the minority and the facts that domestic production has fallen by not reaching the objective of a hasty measure.

Beyond the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has left the discretion of the government to draft fiscal policies, is the fact of what has happened to the local production, which is falling at a high rate", says Mr. Lachej.

Even the President of the Albanian Craft Microbeer Association, Xhim Begeja, said that despite the fact that we are lost by the majority of the Constitutional Court, the battle for the beer excise will continue. Begeja asserted that the opinion of the minority of Constitutional judges, truly reflected the reality of domestic production and the losses that are being caused by the doubling of the excise duty.

Imported beers continue to expand the field in the Albanian market. For the 7-month 2024, the weight of import beer in the Albanian market has reached 60%, from 42% that was in 2016 according to Customs data.

About 40% of the demand for beer is covered by Albanian production. The situation was similar a year ago. For the months of January-July 2023, imported beers occupied 59% of the market, and 41% of products came from imports.

In 2015, imported beers occupied 40% of the market, in 2022 they occupied 51% of the market and in 2023 they occupied 60% of the market. Producers predict that by the end of 2024, imported beers are expected to occupy almost 70% of the market.

"The doubling of the excise duty has made the tendency of import beers to increase significantly compared to domestic beers. This means that they are leading local production to a complete collapse", Adrian Kostaqi, the administrator of the "Korça" and "Tirana" breweries, claimed earlier for Monitor.

After reviewing the lawsuit of the Association of Producers and Traders of Alcoholic Beverages, the Constitutional Court on July 16 decided to keep in force the new law "On excise duties", which unified the excise duty on beer producers from January 1, 2023. The Association of Producers and Traders of Alcoholic Beverages in the lawsuit requested the partial repeal of laws no. 81/2022 and no. 94/2023 on excise duties, for the part that provides for the unification of malt beer excise duty for all producers regardless of the amount of annual production.

In the notification for decision-making, it is stated that the Constitutional Court appreciated that during the trial it was not proven that the legal changes have violated the essence of the freedom of economic activity or put it at risk to the extent that its existence is questioned. In this perspective, the unification of the excise duty does not constitute a disproportionate tool.

In the position against the majority that decided to overturn the manufacturers' request and left in force the legal changes for the doubling of the excise tax, the two judges initially argued that the Constitutional Court does not respect the principle of the rule of law in two cases with the same type of consequences, the violation of proportionality.

"Taking into account the similarity of the two cases, we appreciate that the specific case should have the same conclusion as the result reached for the Tax Law - that of accepting the request, since the treatment in this case also has to do with examining the proportionality of the excise tax for small producers, for whom it immediately doubled due to unification.

In this view, two diametrically opposed solutions, given in constitutional cases examined at the same time by the Court and with the same typology of consequences, do not respect the principle of the rule of law, in the sense of respecting the rule of continuity of jurisprudence" , was cited in the minority opinion.

From January 1, 2023, after a 15-year period of operation of the differentiated excise duty depending on the amount of production, with the entry into force of the new excise law, the excise duty is unified, doubling it for beer producers under 200,000 HL per year , from the value of 360 ALL/HL to 710 ALL/HL.

For the two judges of the Constitutional Court who make up the minority opinion, the doubling of the excise duty was opposed for several reasons.

First, according to the opinion of the minority, the level of the imposed excise duty has not been chosen in the measure used by the vast majority of EU and Balkan countries, but has preferred to be ranked among those countries with the highest excise duty.

Secondly, in terms of the categorization of the production quantity, the reduced fee is not applied in support of small beers according to the EC directive.

The two judges also argued that doubling the excise duty did not justify avoiding tax evasion as long as the brewing and trading industry is monitored by a tax stamp tracking system.

The production of the country before the fiscal changes was charged with 360 ALL/HL for producers below 200,000 HL, while for production above this level the excise duty was 710 ALL. After the changes in the law "On excise duties in the Republic of Albania", the tax was unified at 710 lek for producers under and over 200,000 Hl, both local and foreign.

Local producers have unanimously warned several times that the doubling of the excise duty would not only increase the weight of imported beer on the market, but would lead to bankruptcy of the local industry./ Monitor magazine.