Fuel consumption increased, this is how much revenue from traffic tax will reach in 2023

The state budget collected 19.5 billion lek or 190 million euros from sales tax last year with an annual increase of 7%.

The increase in income seems to have been helped by the increase in fuel consumption, as the tax is levied at a fixed value per liter. The sales tax on gasoline and diesel is 27 lek per liter for gasoline and 27 lek per liter for diesel. This tax is paid for the amount of gasoline and diesel imported or produced in the country, with the exception of the amount of gasoline and diesel produced in the country, but exported outside the territory of Albania.

In 2023, the Ministry of Finance had planned to collect 21 billion ALL from the turnover tax, but 19.5 billion ALL have been collected, with a non-realization amounting to 1.5 billion ALL.

At least until last year, the funds generated from the turnover tax were much higher than the internal funds allocated by the budget for roads.

In 2023, the revenue from the traffic tax was 19.5 billion ALL, while the internal funding from the budget for the road transport program was 15.2 billion ALL according to the data from the 2023 budget.

The turnover tax is intended to collect revenue from transport users and the tax is levied on the purchase of fuel, for each liter consumed, and usually helps the budget generate funds that can then be reallocated to road construction and maintenance.

So the external consultants have pointed out that Albania collects a significant amount of taxes from road users, but does not return all of them to the roads.

The European Commission, through the IPA program, has provided technical consultancy for the road maintenance plan that the government is implementing. It finds that the budget expenditures for the maintenance of the national road network are lower than the collected user payments (fuel excise taxes, fuel taxes of circulation)./MONITOR