TIRANA, Nov 12 /ATA/ Exempting public transport from the VAT increase and including it in the reduced 6% VAT scheme were among the demands put forward by the Urban and Intercity Transport Association during discussions on the 2027 Fiscal Package.
Sector representatives warned that the planned increase in VAT from 20% to 21%, due to take effect on 1 January 2027, would affect ticket prices and operators’ costs.
Speaking at a hearing before the parliamentary Committee on Economy, Employment and Finance, Kostandin Foni, Chairman of the National Urban Transport Association, argued that ticket prices are not set by operators according to market conditions, but are approved by decisions of municipal councils. For this reason, any change in the VAT rate would also require a revision of the formula used to calculate the final ticket price.
According to Foni, applying the reduced 6% VAT rate would give operators greater financial scope to invest in their bus fleets and renew their vehicles. He also noted that European legislation allows reduced VAT rates for passenger transport, while lower rates apply in other countries across the region and transport tickets are exempt from VAT in Kosovo.
Dashnor Memaj, Chairman of the Urban and Intercity Transport Association, expressed a similar view, calling for the sector to benefit from reduced VAT rates in line with practices in EU member states.
Memaj called for greater institutional support for public transport, arguing that lowering the VAT registration threshold to ALL 5 million would bring around 90% of intercity operators into the tax system, increasing their fiscal burden while generating limited additional revenue for the sector.
Another issue raised by transport representatives concerned changes to the road tax and its transfer to the vehicle tax. Memaj argued that these changes would not significantly reduce operators’ costs and called for their impact to be reassessed, taking into account the specific characteristics of the public transport sector.
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