What Good Is a Strong Lek If It Can’t Lower the Price of Fuel?

By Rildo Ngjela

The lek is rising. So is fuel.

The euro and the dollar hit new records — downward ones, of course.

What matters is that the lek is hitting the peaks.

Rising oil prices on international markets certainly explain this result, but how the price on the board is calculated remains a mystery.

FACT: On June 19, when the Transparency Board ceased operations, diesel cost 176 lek and petrol 166. In less than three months both rose by 53 lek, or 30% more.

We are currently facing a new price with no ceiling or official calculation separating international quotations, exchange rates, taxes, import costs and company margins.

We were promised that whenever the price reached 200 lek per litre, the Board would intervene. On July 22 the price went to 206 lek per litre. Then it fell to 199 until August 5 and rose to 215 lek on August 14. This rise continued until today, when we reached 229 lek per litre. For 33 consecutive days the price of diesel has stayed above 200 lek per litre. These 33 uninterrupted days demand an answer.

Silence!

Since there is no signal from the Board about a revival, what is the Competition Authority doing? I don’t know whether they have also noticed that the largest retail fuel sale networks have fixed the price at 229 lek per litre. I think this is a signal that calls for scrutiny of import invoices, delivery dates, inventories, contracts and company margins during the price change period.

Every citizen would be grateful if the Authority launched an investigation into this matter. Or at least a check related to price coordination among companies. In March it announced it was keeping fuel companies under monitoring, and that was it. Six months later we have no report or conclusion. No communication. So far they present themselves as an uninterested spectator represented only by offices and buildings.

So much for institutional mechanisms.

Another body that could take up citizens’ concerns is the opposition. The opposition has spoken. On April 3. Since then this problem has been mentioned as a peripheral issue between the lines of statements and through clenched teeth during TV debates, repeating the same proposals made in April.

A fiasco here too.

This brings us back to the question that keeps being avoided: what good is a strong lek if its benefits never reach the fuel pump?

Exporters get fewer lek for every euro earned, while families relying on remittances get fewer lek for every euro sent home. Drivers keep paying 229 lek per litre. The government celebrates the exchange rate as proof of economic strength, while no one is saying who pockets the advantage created by this rate.

When this advantage is absorbed by taxes, unexplained margins and institutional inaction, the strong lek becomes an official statistic of little value to the citizen. Until the full price formula is published and the Competition Authority accounts for six months of silent monitoring, the price displayed at the pump will remain citizens’ clearest judgment of the real economic value of Albania’s strong currency.