PARLIAMENT, PS DEPUTIES: DO NOT REMOVE THE EXCISE TAX ON ENERGY DRINKS RUÇI-DOKLE AGAINST "The fiscal package, the state loses money" Gramoz Ruçi: I would support the excise tax on drinks if the IMF requested it. It was a mistake to say ‘a diplomat is asking us to do it’. Namik Dokle: The budget loses 282 million lek The Socialist deputies of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy joined yesterday their colleagues on the parliamentary Committee on Economy, who forcefully opposed two days earlier the removal of the excise tax on energy drinks. The head of the PS parliamentary group, Gramoz Ruçi, described yesterday the removal of the excise tax as unfair, while Socialist legislator Namik Dokle stressed that the state budget loses 282 million lek from this government proposal, with which, according to him, other sectors of the country’s economy could be helped. “Removing the excise tax on energy drinks is unfair; we lose more than 282 million lek a year. With this amount we could send 2,000 students to the best universities. I am in favor of not removing the excise tax on energy drinks; those 282 million lek could be earned from this and go to the benefit of hospitals, schools, kindergartens, and investments. I am even less in agreement with what the Ministry of Finance presented to the Committee on Economy, where it said that Continues on page 3

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