On Wednesday, Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia adopted amendments to the Excise Law, proposed by the Government, at its 95th session. MPs previously concluded that Draft Law on Modifications and Amendments to the Excise Law, submitted by SDSM MPs is not acceptable and cannot be submitted for second reading.
 
Government’s Draft Law on Modifications and Amendments to the Excise Law adopted by applying summary procedure, envisages for excises to be calculated out the basis of vehicle value, rather than on the basis of the engine volume, as so far. Vehicles with invoice value up to EUR 3,000 will be excise exempted, while those exceeding this amount will be subject to excise rate calculated depending on the vehicle value.
 
Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski, when explaining the proposed amendments, pointed out that many objectives are met, among which fiscal neutrality, environment protection, solution for vehicles with foreign registration plates, changes to homologation, thus avoiding frequent visits to customs terminals, and what is most important the existing excise calculation model was replaced with new one, as percentage of the vehicle value.
 
– General excise reduction is achieved and offered for both old and new vehicles in most of the cases, mainly for the more economic vehicles, being usually bestsellers. Draft Law envisages gradual excise increase. As for vehicles with invoice value above EUR 3000, excise increases in percentage. Calculation model offers favourable solution for the citizens’ budget, so as to be able to buy new or used vehicles at lower costs, Stavreski said.
 
SDSM Member of Parliament Marjanco Nikolov believes that fiscal implications will be lower than the expected, however, he points out that we should wait and see how the whole procedure will be realized. He expressed hope that most of the citizens will be able to exercise the right to import second-hand vehicles. (MIA).
