The Albanian government will not lift taxes on oil, declared PM Edi Rama in a video shared on Facebook.
He also said that the government has taken several measures to prevent hikes in electricity bills.
The Albanian prime minister said that in the past months, the government has been pitching in to pay electricity bills for small businesses and families.
“The government has to pay almost 80% of the energy since the price went from 52 euros per megawatt to 550 euros per megawatt”, Rama said.
The 7 points social aid package includes:
- Allocate 3.6 billion ALL to index pensions, to be indexed in the upcoming pension.
- Cash compensation when increase in the basket of goods is more than over 7%. The government will accord 3,000 ALL to all retirees, pensioners with disabilities, the disabled, and those who benefit from the economic scheme, that receives less than the minimum wage
- Subsidies for farmers that don’t pay taxes for oil to reach ALL 1.4 billion, with an additional $5 million to be allocated immediately.
- Support for urban transport, ALL 500 million to be paid for the difference of the ticket fare, so the ticket price does not change.
- Law on zeroing the salary tax up to 4000 ALL to enter into force two months ahead, halving the salary tax up to 5000 ALL, and reducing the salary tax from 1.5 to 2 million ALL enters into force as of now.
- In April, the minimum wage will be set to 32000 ALL.
- ALL 20 billion financing as a shield avoids the increase in the price of electricity bills for citizens.
The rise in the price of fuel and basket of goods escalated into a nationwide protest for the fourth day in a row.
This is the first time that the Albanian government presents a special package to help citizens in face of inflated prices.
On Thursday, Rama called the protesters a “chaos-seeking minority”.
On Saturday, thousands flocked the main square in the capital to raise their voice against what they called an unbearable increase in prices.
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