Association against monopoly in fuel marking

TIRANA, Jan. 8 – While the Albanian government is about to sign a 10-year concession contract with Austria-based Global Fluids International to monitor the quality of fuel by marking it, the Association of Fuel Importers describes the concession as an unfair monopoly which risks a further increase in fuel prices, already at their historical record high levels. In a letter sent to the Competition Authority just before the Finance Ministry signs the contract with the winning consortium which was the only bidder in an international tender held last May, the Association demands the intervention of the Competition Authority to stop the monopoly in the fuel market.
“The tariff set for this service at 200 lek/1,000 litres initially introduced by the bidder has been finalized to 614 lek/1,000 litres of fuel, which means 6.5 Euros/1,000 litres. This tariff is even higher than the profit the companies themselves make,” says the Association. Introducing a list of institution monitoring the fuel market, such as the Directorates of Metrology, Patents and Trademarks, the Central Technical Inspectorate, the Association casts doubts on the necessity of the monopoly service at a time when the imported fuel is already marked by the foreign refineries under EU standards. Bardhi Sejdarasi, the Association’s coordinator says the fee in EU countries is around 0.1 USD per tonne of fuel.
In an international tender held on May 14, 2012 Austria-based Global Fluids International won a 10-year contract to monitor the quality of fuel in Albania. Global Fluids, which bid USD 4 million, had earlier been awarded a bonus by government because of making an unsolicited offer. The company will check fuel quality in customs points. The fuel quality is currently supervised by the Central Technical Inspectorate.
Government had announced it would contract a specialized company to mark fuel and monitor the market in order to respect fuel quality and prevent tax evasion. Several oil companies have been suspended and had their licences revoked because of trading fuel not meeting standards and smuggling. In early 2011, a massive fraud scheme involving the gasoline and diesel distribution system, selling mixed premium products with inferior byproducts that could have damaged thousands of vehicles and cost consumers millions was unveiled. The probe led to charges for 13 men, both public officials and businesspeople.
After slightly dropping last summer, fuel prices have reached record high levels again. Both diesel and petrol prices stand at an average of 195 lek/litre (Euro 1.4).