For all businesses and enterprises that do not declare the real salary, severe administrative and possibly criminal measures will be taken, Prime Minister Edi Rama declared on Tuesday in a meeting with businesses about the social insurance scheme.

"None of us should avoid our obligations. We have the obligation as a government, that their lives should be as peaceful as possible, that living conditions should be improved as much as possible, and those who create jobs in this country, which are the enterprises and who pay for the work, have the obligation that every penny of every payment for every person due to the pensioners goes to the pensioners. This is the obligation of anyone who receives a salary. And while in the public sector, this obligation is fulfilled, because it does not depend on the behavior of the person being paid, it is going directly to the social security fund. The same does not happen in the private sector,” PM Rama said.

“To cut it short, we have a big problem, despite the improvements that have been made with the declaration of the real wage, a big problem that we are determined not to wait for gradual improvement, but to demand a rapid improvement,” he said.

“We wish and believe that the companies will not need to be put under the pressure of heavy administrative and probably criminal measures for the theft of pensions.”

Tax measures should not be the only weapon to solve this problem with the non-declaration of real salaries, declared the Minister of Economy, Blendi Gonxhja.

"Tax measures cannot be the only weapon to fight this big problem we have. It is very important to work with awareness-raising initiatives, to understand the importance of these behaviors, these actions, and the actors by which they are carried out. We must have a greater commitment to raise awareness of these phenomena," said Gonxhja.