* Albania removes VAT to spur output, employment
* Steel, cement used in power plants exempt from VAT
Feb 13 (Reuters) – Albania’s government has scrapped value-added tax on imports of industrial and agricultural tools, steel and cement to boost the economy before June’s parliamentary election.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha told a government meeting on Wednesday that the decision to remove the 20 percent VAT on these imports was part of efforts “to spur output and the employment of Albanian citizens with all the stimuli.”
The World Bank has called Albania’s government debt levels ‘dangerous’.
The country’s economic growth rate was running at 2.7 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012, less than half its pace in 2008 before successive global and regional crises took hold. European countries are the ex-communist nation’s main investors, bankers and trading partners.
“With these reforms we aim to expand economic freedom and free initiative for every Albanian farmer, every small, medium-sized or big business,” Berisha said, while also pledging to cut the budget deficit.
The VAT decision will affect all imported equipment used in industry and agriculture, as well as fertilizers. Imported and Albania-made cement and steel can also be exempted under a licence system if it is all used to build hydro power plants.