Albanian Assembly approves the budget for 2021 with 84 votes in favor

Albanian Parliament, November 16, 2020

 In today's plenary session in the Albanian Parliament has been approved the budget for 2021. The budget was voted with 84 votes in favor, 14 against, and 1 abstention.

84 deputies raised the green cards for the main financial law in the country which is envisaged in two directions, coping with the pandemic and reconstruction from the earthquake.

Through this law, the budget of the Ministry of Health has increased by 2.2 billion leks, going to a total of about 70 billion. The bulk of this fund will go to reimbursing medicines used for the pandemic.

Ballsh oilmen will also have a special voice in the finances of 2021. After reaching an agreement with the government, the budget envisages the allocation of 560 million leks, which will serve as a salary fund of 40,000 for oil workers for a period of 12 months.

The government's expectations for 2021 are for budget revenues to reach 483 billion, a sum which seems quite ambitious considering the negative effects that the Covid-19 pandemic could have on the economy.

The agricultural sector is also projected to have greater financial support.

The budget increase for this sector is expected to be 950 million leks, which will go to the fuel reimbursement scheme for farmers, while a fund of 200 million leks will go to investments in dams to cope with floods.

Next year's finances also provide for an increase in salaries for doctors by 40% as well as for teachers by 15%, an increase which starts from January 1, 2021.