“Scandal, the Albpetrol sale”

“The production share that the Parliament conceded yesterday by law, will not be anymore encased by the Albanian government and Albanian citizens, but only by the private operator. The tax on profit that these companies have paid in the last eight years was zero. The mining income support has been applied in 2008, with no more than 20 million USD per year”, Brace declared.

But the sale of the financing rights was only one of the two hottest points of the law. In the last minutes, the majority voted in Parliament an article that allows the government to include in the Albpetrol sale dozens of other oil resources that have not been decided yet.

“This Albanian national asset has produced 900.000 tons of oil, with a value of 450-500 million USD, from which the Albanian state has received only 20 million USD. These are the direct effects of the privatization of the country. This is the private homeland that will not belong to the Albanians anymore”, Brace declared.

Albania is the only country in the region that is rich of oil, and the exports have increased recently. But Mr. Brace says that due to massive corruption, the Albanians are not profiting from the oil revenues.

“An unprecedented act, that has never happened in the 22 years of the Albanian Parliament and that is normally charging with direct penal responsibility not only the Minister of Economy, but all of them who planned that amend and voted at the Albanian Parliament. The act was so unprecedented, that Berisha did not vote it. Berisha left the Parliament Floor for not voting”, Brace declared.

The legal bases for the taxation of oil companies started being planned in 1994, when then President, Sali Berisha, approved a decree that set the tax on profit at 50%, but only after the investments were realized and after other expenses were reduced. This base was also kept by the Socialist government that gave the first oil concession, that of the Patoz-Marinza.

“Maybe this was a responsibility of the Socialist governments. When in power, they should had abolished this decree signed in 1994 by Sali Berisha, which has considered as deductible expenses, for effect of the profit calculation, the capital, operative and administrative expenses, and many others”, Brace declared.

Since 2004, the private companies have not paid the tax on profit, because they present a balance sheet with losses.

Top Channel