Businesses and freelancers are facing a lack of access to the online fiscalization platform, creating difficulties for the normal exercise of their economic activity.
A large number of businesses in Albania have been facing numerous problems in the smooth running of their activities since January 20 due to the malfunctioning of the "Self-Care" fiscalization platform, which is managed by e-Albania.
According to economic and business experts, this malfunction of information technology services brings about a collapse in business finances and legal consequences for their enterprises.
"I am following with concern the problems of the fiscalization platform, which has not been fully functioning for several days and, in practice, has completely blocked the performance of a number of processes by businesses," Julian Saraçi, an independent legal auditor, told BIRN.
According to Saraçi, the collapse of services has brought about a paralysis of the economic and legal activity of a large number of entities.
"Under these conditions, economic entities are objectively unable to fulfill their legal obligations, including reporting to regulatory institutions, issuing invoices, fiscalizing imports and other procedures necessary for the continuity of activity," said Saraçi.
The Self-Care platform is the main digital gateway for communication between businesses and the tax administration. Almost all fiscal transactions are carried out through it.
In practice, it replaces the physical counter and has become the basic tool for the administrative functioning of any business.
Adela Kanani, executive director of the Alliance of Freelance Professionals (APL), explained that when this platform has technical problems or does not function, businesses cannot report, pay or document their activity on time, exposing themselves to delays, uncertainties and the risk of penalties.
"This creates operational stress, hinders financial planning and temporarily paralyzes economic activity," said Adela Kanani, head of APL.
"In this sense, Self-Care is not simply an online service, but a critical infrastructure for the normal functioning of the economy and for building a healthy business climate," Kanani emphasized.
According to experts, the consequences of blocking fiscalization services are not only economic, but also legal.
Sotiraq Dhamo, Prof. Dr. of Economic Sciences, explained that the lack of these services affects both buying and selling entities.
"In the position of the seller, the Self-Care platform is very important, because only through this platform can invoices be issued. For buyers it is very important, because through Self-Care incoming invoices are accepted or not, invoices and import declarations are declared", emphasized Prof. Dr. Dhamo.
Legal auditor Julian Saraçi also said that the consequences of lack of access to the Self-Care platform also affect the legal sphere, so the intervention of the responsible authorities is necessary.
"We consider it necessary for the responsible institutions to come up with clear public positions on the non-application of penalties to entities for the period of system malfunction," said Julian Saraçi.
In response to a request for comment from BIRN, the General Directorate of Taxes published a response on its official website, where, according to it, the platform has been in full service and operating normally since January 28.
"The Tax Administration informs that the problem identified in recent days in accessing the Central Platform for Issuing Fiscal Invoices has been resolved and that the platform, as of this afternoon, January 28, is in full service and functioning normally," the official announcement of the General Directorate of Taxes is quoted.
According to the Tax Directorate, the 139,000 taxpayers who use software for issuing invoices should continue to issue invoices through it normally even in cases where they find that the invoices are not equipped with a unique code (NIVF), and fiscalize them once full service is restored.
Regarding the 3,000 taxpayers who are not equipped with software, but use the Central Invoice Platform, the Tax Directorate writes that they can apply to the relevant Regional Tax Directorate to be equipped with a special invoice block, which is also used in the event of a defect or complete interruption of the functioning of the software solution./Reporter.al
