(Podgorica, 6 August 2012) The Government of Montenegro continues to charge its citizens high customs and excise charges for petroleum products and their derivatives, resulting in one of the highest petrol prices in the region. On the other hand it has freed Canadian billionaire Peter Munk of any charges for the fuel he imports into the country.
In this way the state has forsaken the millions of euros that would have flowed into government coffers as a result of the tons of fuel that are being poured into the hundreds of yachts sitting in Munk’s Porto Montenegro marina in Tivat.
At the same time, the state is mercilessly taking from the pockets of taxpayers, with 50% of the total price of fuel going to the government (since it charges customs, transit taxes, excises, as well as compensation for the building of the highway).
Similarly, while taxpayers face a number of impositions by the state, Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum, the owner of Jugopetrol, has enabled their monopoly over the domestic market and guaranteed profit.
In Jugopetrol‘s privatization agreement signed by the government and the new Greek owners in 2002, Hellenic Petroleum was guaranteed that the methodology for setting fuel prices will not negatively impact on minimal margins and expenditures (which were agreed upon by the two sides) as long as the price of petroleum and its derivates depends on any legal or regulatory limitations.
The agreement specifies that, in so far as changes are made that will negatively affect the company’s minimal margins and expenditures, “The Government will compensate the company’s losses in the amount that it had to pay as a result of such changes.”
This incredible clause – committing the state to compensating a foreign firm – guarantees secure revenues for Jugopetrol. The guarantees come in spite of the fact that Jugopetrol is importing petrol from Greece via the sea, which significantly reduces their procurement costs.
Similarly, the agreement has identified the International Arbitration Court in London as having jurisdiction in case of a disagreement, and it is interesting that the Government in advance renounced its rights to invest any complaint against the decision or to appeal to another court.
All this confirms that Jugopetrol represents one of many examples of the Government selling national resources to foreign investors and guaranteeing them various types of monopolies, while imposing on citizens numerous taxes, which they feel today through their empty wallets.
