The Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms has supported the demands which it has called the rights and reasonableness of citizens against the abnormal increase in property tax bills.

KMDLNj says that many citizens have approached them after the decision that property tax bills, compared to 2022, have increased up to 120 percent more.

KMDLNj has expressed itself against the predatory action of the Ministry of Finance regarding the property tax, which is in complete contradiction with the current economic situation for the majority of Kosovo's citizens.

CDHRF response:

PROPERTY TAX OR LEGALIZATION OF STATE PROPERTY ON CITIZENS' LOOTING!

Many citizens have turned to KMDLNj after the decision that property tax invoices, compared to 2022, have increased up to 120 percent more. After this action by the thieves of the Ministry of Finance, the municipalities have made public the property tax invoices for the year 2023, reasoning that the responsibility falls on the Ministry of Finance that has done the revaluation of the properties and that the municipalities are obliged to implement the decision of this ministry although, always according to the statements of the mayors of the municipalities, they did not agree with this decision. The citizen of Kosovo is caught between two fraudsters, the Ministry of Finance and the municipalities, who shift the responsibility to each other until the bills are unaffordable for the majority of the citizens of Kosovo. The Ministry of Finance has not even taken the symbolic action to ease the difficult economic situation of the majority of Kosovo's citizens at a time when inflation has exceeded 12%, while the prices of essential basic items for the majority of Kosovo's citizens have increased. over 50%. All services have increased since vehicle insurance, fuel, banking services, health services, drug prices, traffic tickets, while, on the other hand, we do not have salary increases, pensions are lower in the region, social assistance provided by the government it is symbolic, the businesses have gone bankrupt or are on the verge of bankruptcy while they support, once a year with 50 euros the employees in the public sector, while the rights of the employees in the private sector are violated by never supporting them and, finally, instead of have facilities for this difficult economic condition of the citizens, the Ministry of Finance, unfairly hits the citizens by doubling their property tax bills. Illegal citizens are required to pay their property taxes covering a period of nine months within nine months, and if you are late in paying your bills by the due dates, you will be fined 0.65 cents per day and 10% of the value of the property tax bill.

The property tax has especially shown an abnormal increase in the municipality of Pristina, which in other areas has also created illegal mechanisms to rob the citizens of Pristina and those who visit Pristina. A paramilitary unit operates in Pristina that was formed without any legal basis by the previous municipal government called "Prishtina Parking" which, in complete violation of the law, assumes the role of the inspectorate, the road traffic police, the prosecutor and the judge, where he himself punishes and executes. The prices are at the level of European and world capitals and they have devoured every space that is designated for citizens, even the sidewalks where they have placed parking meters, although they do not resemble a parking lot. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in Dardani, Bregu i Diellit neighborhood and in Ulpiana, where even pedestrian areas have been converted into parking lots. Then, if the citizens of Pristina are obliged to pay the enormous property tax as well as the road tax, why did they want to pay the parking tax for the spaces that are also taxed. Then, what has the municipality of Prishtina invested in these spaces that are terrorized by the paramilitaries Prishtina Parking to collect a punitive tax?!

KMDLNj is against the predatory action of the Ministry of Finance regarding the property tax, which is in complete opposition to the current economic situation for the majority of Kosovo's citizens, as well as against the arbitrary actions of Prishtina Parking that fines the citizens of Pristina beyond the mandate that a company offering services of this nature should have.

KMDLNj supports the fair and reasonable demands of citizens against the abnormal increase in property tax bills as well as the arbitrary behavior of Prishtina Parking and requests that the decision to increase the property tax be urgently reconsidered.

For this, citizen activism should be increased, which would require the deputies of the Assembly of Kosovo to ask for clarifications from the Ministry of Finance for this increase as well as the return of the tax to its previous state as long as we have this state in a special interpellation. heavy economic.

At the same time, this civic activism, which is absent but can and should be activated, must put pressure and demand that the assemblymen of the Municipality of Pristina deal with the case of Prishtina Parking by disciplining them to behave in accordance with the law and taking responsibility for those who brought this situation.

However, if there would be no change, then citizens should self-organize and demand the realization of their human rights through civil disobedience and other objections such as peaceful protests, peaceful marches, which are implemented in all democratic countries.