Aleat sh.a, the concessionary company for the production of passports and identity cards, closed the last year of the concession with a net profit of 1.42 billion ALL or about 12.7 million euros.
Data from the official balance sheet show that during the past year, Albanians paid about 49.3 million euros to be equipped with identification tools. Allied Company reported expenses of 36.6 million euros including taxes and a net profit of 12.7 million euros.
This was the last year of the concession for the production of biometric passports and identity cards. At the beginning of this year, the Minister of the Interior Bledi Çuçi announced that the service for the production of identification tools would be nationalized and the concession agreement with Allies would not be renewed.
Allied Company was contracted by the Albanian government for the exclusive concession in 2008, initially for a period of 5 years. The concession agreement was accompanied by a significant increase in the prices of passports and identity cards for citizens.
At the time, the government justified the concession as a necessary measure to meet the conditions for visa liberalization and increase national security. But in 2013, the government extended the concession for another 10 years without competition, just like the concessions of the Rinas Airport and the chrome mine in Bulqiza.
For 15 years in a row, Aleat has been one of the most profitable companies in Albania, recording profit rates ranging from 25 to 50 percent of turnover.
Historical data shows that for the entire 15-year period, Aleat collected 52.5 billion ALL or 470 million EUR from the sale of passports and identity cards, and recorded a net profit of about 127.5 million EUR (exchange rate 1 EUR = 111.5 ALL) . Last year was simply the closing of a golden concession, which took almost half a billion euros from the Albanians. /oligarkia.al