Recently, Minister of Energy Damian Gjiknuri has proposed a raise in the excise tax on gas. If this proposal is approved in Parliament, a liter of gas will become 13 lekë (€0.10) more expensive.
The current market price of gas is about 65 lekë (€0.48) per liter. An excise increase of 13 lekë thus represents an increase of 20%, putting the total price per liter at 78 lekë (€0.57).
The argument floated by the government in both parliamentary debates and during several television appearances is that the excise is necessary “to discipline a very chaotic process of filling gas canisters, which has caused many accidents.”
Minister Gjiknuri declared that:
Many citizens and many gas station owners in the country, instead of only selling liquid gas to car owners, fill up gas canisters for people that go there on bicycles and with cars.
In other words, the government aims with this tax increase to improve the safety of its citizens. But since it seems unable to differentiate cooking and heating gas and liquid gas used by cars, it has decided just to raise the taxes on both.
Moreover, neither Minister Gjiknuri nor other officials have been able to provide any statistical data about the number of accidents caused by the filling of gas canisters.
In recent months, there has not been a single report of such accidents in the media. The fact of the matter is that filling gas canisters that are used for heating or cooking, even without any safety precautions, is much less risky than filling a car with gas. Filling a gas canister is different from filling a car’s gas tank, because, although the absence of an air valve slows down the filling process, this is also excludes the possibility of an explosion.
So it seems that the government’s argument doesn’t hold. Instead, its decision to raise the gas price artificially, through an excise increase, will only increase the informality of the market.
Because citizens will always buy gas at the cheapest place.
