Highest court rules price control boards are unconstitutional
Story Highlights
- The ruling automatically voids the government's normative act that allows a special board to set prices of basic food items, with critics hoping the fuel board will be abolished too.
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TIRANA, Feb. 23, 2023 - Albania’s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday against the government’s decision to establish a price control board on food basics, a decision that is likely to impact the fuel price control board as well.
Critics say the boards are doing the opposite of what they are supposed to do -- keeping prices higher than they would be if the boards did not exist.
The ruling automatically voids the government's normative act by which it approved earlier this year the establishment of a joint board of government and business community representatives for "transparency and price monitoring for some basic food products and other related products as a result of the special situation created in the market.”
The decision was taken in March last year as the country recorded a high increase in prices following Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The aim, according to the government, was to curb potential abuses by traders.
But according to the Constitutional Court, the acts approved by the government "do not meet the constitutional criteria provided for in Article 101 of the Constitution," which stipulates that "the Council of Ministers, in case of need and emergency, under its responsibility, can issue normative acts that have the force of law, for taking temporary measures...".
The Constitutional Court’s ruling came after a complaint by opposition MPs, who applauded the court's latest decision. Democratic MP Gazmend Bardhi spoke of "another battle won with the government and its oligarchs".
"Today's decision of the Constitutional Court protects the public interest," Mr. Bardhi said in a statement.
Jorida Tabaku, another DP MP, applauded the decision.
“The communist board, which during the crisis has set abusive prices at the expense of the pockets of Albanians by increasing the prices of the basket by at least 30 percent and doing business with the crisis of the Albanians, is now voided," Mrs. Tabaku wrote on Facebook, underlining that the citizens are now waiting for a similar decision on the fuel board.
Unlike the food price board, which intervened only a few times, the fuel board, set up with the same purpose, has been much more active. It was initially stated that fuel traders would have to give up their profits and that the prices set by the board would allow them to break even.
But a few weeks later, the government made a change to the normative act that contained the price calculation formula including a profit of 12 lek per liter for retail sales.
