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Democratic MP Jorida Tabaku, during a question-and-answer session in the Parliament with the Minister of Finance, Petrit Malaj, has leveled accusations against the government. Tabaku said that through low reference prices, it is favoring building builders, who, according to her, pay less taxes in this way.
According to Tabaku, this is done with the aim of protecting criminal interests, of those who, according to her, launder dirty money by investing in construction.
Tabaku further accused the government of 'attacking' small businesses through frequent tax audits.
"In December 2025, Parliament voted by majority vote on a new law on the revaluation of real estate, which was supposed to end the 10-year freeze on the valuation of assets, which were valued with references from previous years, and here I refer to 2016. I would like to remind my colleague what has happened to the real estate market during all these years, while the majority kept this legal proposal dormant in a drawer. One of the main reasons for the adoption of the law, according to the law itself and the documents it contained, was the elimination of informality in the real estate market, making it impossible to fictitiously declare lower values during sales and purchases.
A persistent problem in practice. This legal proposal would have a revenue boom and a very positive impact on the budget. But 4 months after the approval of this law, the by-laws of this law have been in question. For almost 2 years, the government blocked the property revaluation process with the argument that new reference prices for areas outside Tirana, especially for coastal areas, should be approved. Why was the revaluation of citizens' properties kept blocked for 2 years, when in the end the new references were not approved? What was the real reason for this delay? By leaving reference prices in force much lower than the real value, builders on the coast pay very low taxes.
Builders are the main beneficiaries of what the government has done. Doesn't this constitute a protective practice for builders? Construction is one of the sectors with the highest informality. One of the sectors where money laundering, according to all international information, has the greatest scope to occur and it actually does. With 9 million square meters of construction over the past years. Meanwhile, tax inspectors have rushed to small businesses. Why has the Ministry of Finance brought the implementation of this draft law to the Greek calendars. The government hides the real beneficiaries, protects criminal and corrupt interests. Apartment prices have gone from 2500-6000 euros per square meter. You are making custom laws", said Tabaku, among other things.
On the other hand, Minister Malaj responded that construction taxation is based on the investment estimate to be realized and not on the basis of reference prices.
Malaj further said that during this year the process of revaluation of properties throughout Albania will be carried out, a process that, according to him, will be concluded within 2026.
Regarding Tabaku's accusations that small businesses are being 'attacked', Malaj said that during 2025 there were only 3,700 checks by Taxes on businesses in the country, which according to him constitutes 3%, compared to the total number of businesses.
"The latest comment made by Tabaku, that taxes have been rushed to business, while speaking hypothetically, because out of 142 thousand taxpayers who are active in the General Directorate of Taxes, only about 3700 checks have been made throughout 2025, which is about 3%. Only you know what information you are referring to when you say that taxes have been rushed to business.
Claim that the government has been blocking the revaluation process for 2 years. But for a process to be blocked, it must start once. There has never been a start of a revaluation process. The revaluation process started in December 2025 and is continuing at a very good pace, where we have revaluations of properties not only in Tirana, but throughout Albania. So far, there are about 9500 applications. The process will be open until December 31, 2026, a more than sufficient time for Albanian citizens who wish to have their property revaluation. As for the new reference prices, I want to emphasize that decision-making regarding these prices is very important and the inter-institutional group is taking all the time necessary to issue the most realistic prices, which are close to the real prices in the market. Because what has been found is that the prices of properties registered in the ASHK are lower than the prices marketed by Real Estate offices. The goal is to reflect market dynamics, coastal development, and take into account real transactions.
"To the second question, where you want to know the value of the missing revenues in the budget, as a result of the infrastructure impact tax, I must first say that the infrastructure impact tax is a local tax and does not affect the state budget. The infrastructure impact tax is a tax that builders pay, based on the investment estimate they will make, not based on the reference price. In other words, we are not giving anyone an advantage, but we are implementing the legal framework in force and which will change as soon as the inter-institutional working group finishes its work. For the new pricing methodology and the new reference prices, there is an order from the Prime Minister, which includes 9 institutions," Malaj said, among other things.
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