TIRANA, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Albanian tax authorities have toughened measures against debtor businesses, blocking over 75,000 bank accounts of companies that have failed to pay their taxes, sources from Albania's General Tax Directorate said Monday.
The amount of debt related to these accounts reaches over 40 billion leks (357 million U.S. dollars).
According to official statistics released by Albanian finance ministry, the businesses' unpaid obligations to the state are valued at 147 billion leks (1.31 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2016.
Meanwhile, there are over 18,500 businesses which owe debt to the state tax and customs authorities.
A part of this debt value (debts incurred before 2010) is being written-off by the tax administration in the framework of the fiscal pardoning law which will continue to remain in force until the end of 2017.
This law foresees the pardoning of delayed interests, fines and other penalties if the debtor agrees to pay the principal or the initial debt.
