Amendments and additions to the decision “On implementing provisions of the law ‘On excise tax’”, as amended

Official Bulletin no. 4, dated 19 January 2017

On 18.1.2017, Decision of Council of Ministers no. 28 decided to make some amendments to decision no. 612, dated 5.9.2012 “On implementing provisions of the law ‘On excise tax’”, as amended.

First, in paragraph 3 of Article 43 the letter “a” is amended. According to the amendment made to the letter ”a” the amount of fuel consumed for products manufactured and sold by tax invoices with VAT, is estimated no more than the norms based on smart card by industry as well as regulations based on Annex 10 “Table of fuel consumption”. The value of refundable excise duty shall not be more than 50% of the excise duty paid on purchases made of fuel used for technological needs.

The amendment made in paragraph 7 of Article 43 is of great significance, which stipulates that if after verification of the documents submitted and based on the criteria of risk analysis the customs authority deems necessary to verify the situation on site and/or exercise control, then this procedure is carried out before the approval of reimbursement. In this case, this procedure can not last more than 30 (thirty) days from the submission of the request for reimbursement. Directorate General of Customs shall prepare a joint instruction on elements of risk in these cases.

In addition, another significant amendment is a made after paragraph 3 of Article 44, where paragraphs 4 and 5 are added. Paragraph 4 stipulates that the maximum percentage allowed for reimbursement of excise tax on the presence of BIO components in the fuel according to standards EN: 590 for diesel or EN: 228 for gasoline, i.e. is not more than five (5) percent. The reimbursement is applicable only for products from biofuel miscable on Albanian territory. Whereas paragraph 5 sets out the conditions that must be applied prior to reimbursement adoption, which are:

a) Biofuel for which the refund is required should be used as fuel in the transport sector;

b) Reimbursement of excise duty is obtained to the extent of factual content, but not more than 5% of the product BIO in biofuel content declared for consumption, after it is confirmed by customs chemical laboratory and after verification by the customs authority.

Finally, another significant amendment is that in paragraph 10 of Article 46 according to which the competent customs authorities during the examination of application for refund of excise duty, when deemed necessary, also perform the following actions:

a) Compare the data declared with customs laboratory results;

b) Control on site is carried out and raw materials, quantities produced and the quantities sold in accordance with the sales invoice of biofuel products, inventory, financial statements as well as any other necessary documentation are verified.

If necessary, the procedure of verification or control on site is being conducted in cooperation with the tax authority of competent jurisdiction.