TIRANA, Sept. 28 – Albania’s customs administration says it has drafted some legal changes to a new costly scanning concession in the country’s customs points that will eliminate double payments for importers and exporters, especially during customs transit.
Starting Sept. 7, Albanian businesses are being charged for scanning services offered by U.S.-based Rapiscan concessionaire €22 for declarations of more than 1,000 euros with customs authorities and euro 5 for declarations of less than 1,000 euros. The scanning, intended to curb smuggling and tax evasion, has been made compulsory after a review of the concession contract reducing the initial 2013 tariffs.
The new fees, although considerably lower than the initial deal, have caused concern especially for the garment and footwear industry, the country’s top exporting industry, which imports raw materials to process and re-export them.
Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani says the changes will tackle eliminating double payments for internal customs transit, garment and footwear producers who import raw material and customs warehouses.
Importers have voiced concerns over increased costs in the past few weeks, complaining that they are being forced to pay the new fees even in customs points where the service has not been made available and often have to pay twice for the same service as in case of imports from Durres Port and clearance at other customs points such as the Tirana customs.
Representatives of business and transport associations have described the concession as too costly for Albanian businesses and consumers and with negative impacts for transit of other countries using Albania’s ports and customs points.
Currently, importers and exporters are paying the new concession fees even in customs points where no scanning equipment has been installed, such as the Morine customs point with Kosovo.
The concessionaire has only installed the scanning equipment in the Durres Port and expects to make a new scanner operational in one month at the Kakavija customs point with Greece in southern Albania.
The concession has also raised safety concerns over the scanning of food products, but concession and government officials have assured there is no radiation risk.
“The customs administration has taken all measures to collect the scanning fee on every customs declaration but in the meantime has prepared the necessary legal changes so that the scanning tariff is paid only once in customs operations,” said the customs directorate soon after the reviewed deal with U.S.-based Rapiscan entered into force in early Sept. 2015.
Customs director Pranvera Fagu says the scanning will be carried out on a risk-based system.
Last June, the Albanian government withdrew from its decision to cancel a 15-year scanning concession in customs points reaching an out-of-court solution with U.S.-based Rapiscan Systems which was claiming $350 million in a Paris arbitration court over the unilateral cancellation of the concession.
Under the new deal, the fee for declarations of more than 1,000 euros with customs authorities was reduced to 22 euros, down from an initial 39 euros while the charge for declarations of up to 1,000 euros will be at 5 euros.
The renegotiated deal also revised downward Rapiscan’s expected income to a maximum of 210 million euros in its 15-year concession compared to 316 million euros under the previous deal.
In April 2013, U.S-based Rapiscan System was awarded a 15-year concession by the former Democratic Party-led government to provide turnkey cargo and vehicle security screening services at various sites throughout the country, but the contract was suspended after fierce opposition by the business community which claimed the high tariffs would increase costs and reduce their competitiveness.
Back in late 2014, Albania’s Competition Authority recommended that the Albanian government should review the concession as running counter to Albania’s EU’s commitments and violating tender procedures.
An Albanian company, ICMS, has bought 49 percent of shares of this concession for a symbolic value, raising concerns over the transparency of the deal.
