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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The government has postponed the fuel labeling contract for another year.
In the last Official Gazette, the decision was published on the "Approval of the additional contract for the amendment of the concession contract "For the fuel marking and monitoring service, concluded between the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Albania and the temporary merger of companies "Global Fluids International" SA and "Petroleum Consulting Partners" AG", approved by decision no. 200, dated 13.3.2013, of the Council of Ministers".
According to the decision, the concession contract is 11 years, starting from the effective date. Previously, the contract had a 10-year term.
The decision does not give the reasons for the postponement, but only says that this came as a result of the Contracting Authority's request, without prejudice to the concessionaire's claims arising from the implementation of the Concession Contract.
The contract was supposed to end on August 1, 2023, but even after that date the companies continued to pay, otherwise customs clearance was not done.
The argument given by the concessionaire for postponement is related to the non-marking of crude oil, which is practically impossible to do according to market operators.
A similar argument was used for postponing the concession of fiscal stamps, since the part of the contract for drug stamps had not been implemented.
The Association of Hydrocarbons Companies has been against this postponement. The association said that despite the insistence to confront the representatives of the relevant institutions as to why this concession should be postponed, or should continue to be paid, they have not received any answer.
According to them, this concession has done nothing to fight smuggling, as it marks the oil that goes on the market and the oil that does not pay excise duty.
About 30 million euros were paid for 9 years for this concessionary contract, which had as its purpose the marking and tracking of fuels that turned out to be ineffective according to the importing companies. The concession fee has been paid by the consumer, as the price of oil has increased every year by 1 lek per liter.
Its possible postponement for another year will weigh on the price of oil and with another 7-8 million euros, which is the payment that oil operators make annually for this concession. The latter meanwhile declared a profit rate of 39% in 2022./ Monitor
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