"The decision will be valid until June 15": Kurti announces conditional revoking of taxes

Foto: Profimedia

Acting Prime Minister of provisional Pristina institutions Albin Kurti announced last night that taxes on products from central Serbia would be temporarily and conditionally suspended before midnight, and that sanctions would be imposed on Serbian documents and goods, Kosovo Online reports.

Yesterday, Kurti said at a press conference in Pristina that taxes on Serbian products would be abolished and replaced with reciprocity measures, while taxes on goods from Bosnia and Herzegovina would be completely abolished without reciprocity.

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He stated that the decision would enter into force last night before midnight and will be valid until June 15, when it will be assessed how it was implemented.

He said the reciprocity measure was adopted in accordance with the CEFTA agreement and European trade practices.

"The government is meeting and making a very important decision regarding a gradual application of reciprocity as a principle in relations with Serbia. In trade relations with Serbia, the labels used in the following documents will be in accordance with the Constitution of Kosovo and applicable laws," said Kurti.

According to him, the decision made last night by the government is being enforced by border police, customs, KVFA, medical products and equipment agency and other responsible institutions.

"Therefore, we are making a decision that comes into effect right after it has been signed," Kurti said.

Duric: Kurti did not abolish taxes, don't fall for fake news

The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djuric, said that the outgoing prime minister of the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina, Alibin Kurti, has not abolished taxes on goods from central Serbia and that one should not fall for fake news.

Marko Djuric - Photo: Tanjug/ANDRIJA VUKELIC

"The prime minister of the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina announced, to be quite precise, only a suspension of taxes that has a deadline and is conditional, while introducing new punitive measures for our citizens and economy, which he calls reciprocity," Djuric stressed in a statement.

With this, he said, the situation is not deescalating and is not returning to where it was before the introduction of anti-civilizational taxes on goods from central Serbia; instead, new trade barriers and obstruction of movement of people and goods that were so far non-existent are being introduced in a perfidious way.

Djuric said that Pristina continues to play with the issue and the economic perspective of society in Kosovo and Metohija, and stresses that this decision is a performance intended for the international community.

"I believe, however, that it is by no means time for measures like those adopted by Pristina tonight, instead this is a time when even deep and substantial differences with Pristina need to be set aside, and when we all need to work forcefully and directly to overcome the epidemic that doesn't know about borders, political orientation, religion and nation," Djuric concluded.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)