Fiscal stamps’ concession – between high costs and absent economic logic

Abstract

The fiscal stamps’ concession for excise -taxed and pharmaceutical products is part of a long list of many PPPs and other concessions, granted and approved by Albanian governments, over the years, whose purpose is to free the government and state entities from providing services and investments in different sectors of the economy.Beyond being a normal practice in many European countries and also in the region, this concession, approved since 2011, is almost unique and unusual, in terms of printing and selling price for fiscal stamps by SICPA, the concessionary company, where practically these prices are up to 7-10 times more expensive than the respective ones applied in other European countries and in the region, even by the same concessionary company. Despite this, such a concession applies a primitive technology for the production and printing of (domestic and imported) beer tax stamps, which does not justify the price of the stamp, furthermore, is senselessly burdening the cost of producers and importers, as well as the final consumer, in the domestic market. This concession remains unprecedented, as it imposes a fiscal stamp on beer as well, a practice not implemented in Europe, by burdening, without an economic logic, all the operators who produce and trade beer, as well as the final consumer in the domestic market. Given the fact of the lack of a deep analysis on the benefits and successes of the fight against fiscal evasion from trade of excise – taxed goods and, moreover, of the lack of a clear comparative analysis between the advantages and essential improvements, such a concession brought to the national economy, public finances and the consumer of the Albanian producer, but also through the analysis made with regard to the economic & financial indicators and the costs of the Albanian producers and consumer, the paper comes to the conclusion that this concession, in its closing stage, should be deeply revised, probably being temporarily offered by the government and then negotiated with more favorable terms and prices than the current ones and comparable to other countries in the region and Europe. Also, the government should be attentive to the concerns of beer producers and importers and the unjustifiable costs on final consumer. Moreover, it must clarify and specify, from a legal point of view, the possible consequences, or “gaps” of the concession contract with SICPA company, related to its international arbitration proceedings.