REACTION: Central Bank of Kosovo is keeping secret the decision and study on increase of vehicle insurance price
26/12/2019
Nearly two months after the decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK) to increase vehicle insurance, the GAP Institute is denied the right to access this decision. On 10 December 2019, GAP Institute filed request on the address of CBK and requested access to the Actuarial Survey on which the CBK was based when deciding to increase the price of vehicle insurance by 26%, and requested access to the Decision of CBK Executive Board dated 31 October 2019 on Increase of Insurances.
But, contrary to the Law on Access to Public Documents and contrary to its mission, the CBK has not made these documents public, requesting that we meet with the Deputy Governor, rather than making them public.
It is scandalous and unlawful that a decision of public authorities affecting some 400,000 Kosovo citizens to be kept confidential, invoking an Internal Regulation on secrecy.
Having into consideration the fact that even after repeating the request, on 20 December 2019, the CBK has not made public these documents, in accordance with the Law on Access to Public Documents, GAP Institute will request the intervention of the Ombudsperson before this decision of the CBK will be taken to the court.
Also, GAP Institute recalls that on 12 September 2019, the Kosovo Competition Authority (KCA) issued a professional opinion to the CBK, warning that the unification of prices in terms of compulsory TPL insurance is contrary to competition principles in a free market (see decision: https://bit.ly/2t1Fkju).
GAP Institute publicly requests from CBK to grant access to the Executive Board Decision of 31 October 2019 on the increase of compulsory vehicle insurance premium rates as well as access to industry-level data that would help the general public to understand the reasonableness of the CBKs allegations for tariff increases.
