In an amendment submitted 24 hours before the approval of the budget, the deputy of the Socialist Party Klotilda Bushka has requested an additional fund that will go to the Tirana incinerator project. According to the report, an additional fund of 500 million ALL is required for the "Urban Waste Management" program.
Of this amount, 382 million lek (3 million euros) will go towards paying the arrears that the government (in its tax portion) has incurred towards the incinerator for the period 2019-2020.
The report also emphasizes that the funds foreseen for this project for the Municipality of Tirana of 100 million lek make it impossible for the Municipality of Tirana to fulfill its contractual obligations for urban waste management.
These required additional funds are expected to be covered by the increase in VAT revenues to the same extent.
The MP's request states:
In support of Article 75, point 4 of the Rules of the Assembly, I submit for consideration in the plenary session two amendments to the draft law "On the 2021 budget", with the following content:
"In table 1 of the draft law, according to the reference in article 11 of the draft law "On the budget of 2021", a change should be made, as follows: "In the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, current expenses are increased by 500 million lek of the program "Management of urban waste".
The increase in total expenses by 500 million ALL will be covered by the increase in tax revenues from VAT with the same amount."
The accompanying report also explains the reason why this supplement is required:
"The contract for the project "For the construction of the Landfill, the incinerator and the rehabilitation of the existing landfills in Tirana and the production of electricity" is financed by the Council of Ministers and the Municipality of Tirana, based on the joint financial commitment plan for the minimum amount of waste treated in the Landfill and Sawmill. The contractual obligations of the Council of Ministers, according to the commitment plan, for the next 3 years, are in the following values:
The planning for the years 2019 and 2020, of the taxing part of the Government, has resulted in a lack of funds, creating an arrears of ALL 382475.
In the draft law "On the budget of 2021" only 100000 lek are planned for the year 000, for this project. This forecast makes the Municipality of Tirana unable to fulfill its contractual obligations for the management of urban waste", concludes the report. Relationship link:
http://parlament.al/Files/ProjektLigje/2020111520214320201115201640amendament%20buxheti%202021.pdf
There is no information on the website of the Assembly whether this request has been approved.
Earlier this year, the Municipality of Tirana increased cleaning fees for businesses and households by 15-64%. The report of the Medium-Term Budget Program, 2020-2022 of the Municipality of Tirana argued the need for the increase in fees, with the increase in the cost of the service also related to the implementation of the incinerator concession contract.
"Based on the analysis of the cost of the waste cleaning and processing service, a significant difference has been identified between the cost of the service and the revenues collected to cover it. This change is mainly due to the entry into force of the incinerator contract in 2018, based on the PPP implemented by the Albanian Government and being implemented by the Municipalities of the Tirana district.
Also, a significant increase is observed in the annual operating cost of the Municipality of Tirana for the management of this service. For the above, it is considered necessary to review the level of the fee for all categories, in order to facilitate the coverage of the costs which are increasing every year, without reaching its total coverage, and in such a way that there is no a marked increase in the fiscal burden of the categories, aiming at a fair distribution of this burden in accordance with the impact that each of these categories carries", says the municipality's report.
At the end of 2016, the company "Integrated Energy BV" sh.pk won the concession for the construction of the Landfill, the Incinerator and the rehabilitation of the existing storage sites in Tirana.
The presented concessionaire/PPP project provided for the payment of service provision in the amount of 7.4 million euros per year without VAT, through the guarantee of a daily minimum of 700 tons/residue per day at a rate of 29.05 euros/ton, which for all the duration of the concession is foreseen in the amount of 222.7 million euros without VAT.
These payments, according to the feasibility study and the request of the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE) for the forecast in the budget ceilings, are detailed in the amount of 130.9 million euros in support from the Albanian government and 91.8 million euros excluding VAT from the budget of the municipalities in the Tirana District, for the entire 30-year duration, according to the report.
The contract provides for a minimum daily guarantee as well as an article that the price is indexed with inflation, to which the financial proposal is attached, according to a previous report by the Supreme State Audit Office on this contract./ O.Liperi
NOTE: This material is the intellectual property of Monitor
*Editorial title. Original title of the article:
The amendment in the 2021 budget requires an additional 3 million euros for incinerators
