Kosovo Customs will no longer verify the quality of petroleum imported into the country. This competence, which has been under the authority of Kosovo Customs since 2017, has been revoked by the Administrative Instruction on Control and Quality of Liquid Petroleum Fuels, which entered into force at the end of 2020. 

Verification of the quality of imported petrol will now be carried out by private companies, which will be appointed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, MTI. 

Article 51 of the new Administrative Instruction stipulates that Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB) appointed by MTI are now competent to carry out all verification for petrol introduced at Kosovo’s borders. The hired companies will also be responsible for the verification of documents issued outside the territory of the Republic of Kosovo in accordance with the applicable Law.

“During the process of approving the introduction of petroleum fuels, the Conformity Assessment Bodies verifies the documents indicating conformity, including the declaration of conformity or the declaration of quality, which must be attached to the test report, in accordance to the parameters provided by the basic instruction,” the new Administrative Instruction reads. “Kosovo Customs authorizes the introduction of fuels in the territory of Kosovo, only if the certificate/report issued by a CAB appointed by MTI, is in accordance with the basic instruction.”

In Article 23 of the previous instruction, which was issued in 2017, these rights were exclusively designated to Kosovo Customs.

Attempts at a new monopoly in Kosovo 

BIRN has also reported that with this AI, the MTI has effectively envisaged the creation of a monopoly, which could earn the company licensed to provide certification millions of euros per year. 

The MTI has not yet made public any costs that companies may incur per litre for certification. However, BIRN has carried out investigations to find out whether countries in the region apply the same practice, discovering that Albania has previously applied fees to the certification process, charging companies 7.1 Albanian lek or 5 cents for each certified litre.

According to data from Kosovo Customs, in 2019 there 618 million litres of oil imported to Kosovo, while in 2020 this figure dropped slightly to 602 million litres. Using the price charged in Albania, 5 cents per litre, and the amount of oil that was imported to Kosovo in 2020, it can be calculated that the company entitled to a monopoly will accrue roughly 30 million euros in revenue. 

Even if the charge in Kosovo will be half the price at only 2.5 cents per litre, the company will have a guaranteed annual revenue of 15 million euros, and likely daily revenues of roughly 40,000 euros. At 2.5 cents per litre, a company entitled to monopoly on this process for five years would see revenues of around 75 million euros.

In a statement issued for BIRN, the head of the Kosovo Competition Authority, Valon Prestreshi, said that they would look into whether the administrative instruction is in violation of the Law on Protection of Competition.

“This economic policy implemented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to monopolize certain markets has echoes of recidivist policy, of a planned economy. If proven as such, this is contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, which is a free-market economy,” Preteshi said. “As such, today I have authorized the secretariat of  the Anti-Corruption Agency to urgently initiate a preliminary investigation procedure.”