Government reports about operation against informality in fuel market

The Minister of Economic Development, Arben Ahmetaj, published the results of the coordinated operation on the fuel market. 

He said that 30% of the gas stations were found with tax evasion.

“40 out of 122 inspection resulted with violations and criminal reports. 40 subjects are under investigation for hiding revenues, 5 for storing and trading smuggled goods and 2 for frauds with the quality”, Ahmetaj declared.

Police officers arrested six administrators and owners, while dozens of others are under investigation. But they are only small merchants.

“Next week we will focus on wholesalers. The government emphasizes that fuel abuse ends here”, Ahmetaj declared.

Informality in the fuel market, according to the government evaluations, might be on the same level of that of the energy market, with 150 million EUR in total. Ahmetaj declared that the number of tax payments from gas stations has increased with 10%.