Zaev’s junta limits cash purchases to only 500 euros

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Businessmen are angry after the decision to limit cash payments to 500 EUR, which goes into effect June 1st. Drilon Iseni from the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce sees the move as an unnecessary restriction which will impact businesses.

It is a Balkan custom to pay cash. Now consumers will look for ways to avoid this new restriction. Going through the banks always incur absurdly high fees. This will impact sellers of furniture and household appliances, said Iseni.

The Finance Ministry believes that this move will allegedly limit tax evasion and the grey market economy. The limit was set at 2.000 EUR in 2018, then lowered to 1.000 EUR early 2019 and now goes down to 500.

The move was spurred by bankers close to Zaev who want to force the citizenry to make every purchase over 500 euros through them where a high fee is charged for each transaction.