Lanabregas hydropower sale maneuver
10/05/2012 00:00
Linda Rama: Between Family, Work and Albania’s Future 18/08 14:30
Experts say that the sale of the Lanabregas hydropower plant at the
Tirana Aqueduct is an illegal financial maneuver through which the
government is trying to ease its financial crisis.
“The entire legislation about the way how you treat a state owned property, its sale, privatization or transfer, is well defined. Especially when we are talking about passing this property between two owners that have the same owner, which is the state, because in this case you cannot use the civil code or any other transaction shape through sales, against a given price”, declared the former Minister of Finances, Anastas Angjeli.
Mr. Pajtim Bello, a good connoisseur of the energy works says that even the price is abusive. According to him, a hydropower plant with the same power of Lanabregas could be built with half of the price that the Aqueduct is buying it from the state, saving 7.5 to 8 million EUR to the citizens.
“If we see this in its entirety, as business, if we take the loan interests that will be paid, the difference is not 7.5 or 8 million EUR, but around 11 million EUR or more. It means paying 11 million EUR when you have no reason to pay”, Bello declared.
But why is the government making this unusual financial maneuver. The reason is related with the crisis of its finances.
“This is a moderation of injecting money in the state budget. It is the same operation as the Dajti Hotel for 30 million EUR, and here we are, after three years, nothing has been made and it still is a cemetery in the middle of Tirana. The government needed money and this is a hidden loan that the government cannot receive, but obliges its enterprises to take loans to private banks, with only goal to preserve the debt level with 60% of the GDP, but in fact it has gone to 100%, with all these debts”, Brace declared.
The Aqueduct bought the hydropower to the government for 15 million EUR, money that they loaned from a private bank. Pajtim Bello says that this is a transaction with great costs for the citizens.
“The state budget is the one that benefits 15 million EUR, and the loan will be paid by the Tirana citizens, which in total will be 20 million EUR, interests included”, Bello declared.
This is the second time when the government sells a state owned enterprise to another state owned enterprise. The first time was in 2010, when they sold the Dajti Hotel to Bank of Albania for 30 million EUR.
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