Gasoline is making a comeback … at “fantastic” prices!

Two days ago, the Syrian government decided to raise the prices of petroleum derivatives at a rate that reached 100%, as it raised the price of subsidized gasoline from 250 to 450 SP, free gasoline from 450 to 650 SP, and 95 octane gasoline from 850 to 1050. S., after having raised it two weeks ago from 575 to 850 SP It also raised the price of industrial diesel from 300 SYP to 650 SYP. These uprising decisions were met with clear popular anger, especially as they would double the financial burden on citizens. The fact that oil derivatives are the nerve that moves all sectors. And is that at the beginning of last month, the country had suffered a suffocating crisis as a result of the unavailability of gasoline, before the government confirmed two days ago that the gasoline crisis would be resolved in a few days, and that the material it would be available again, raising questions about the simultaneous return of gasoline to the market with the increase in its price. It raises questions about whether the material is available in the first place, but cutting it out was a prelude to putting pressure on the street to accept the new prices.

The former Minister of Economy and Trade, Lamia Assi, in an interview with Al-Akhbar, considered that “the matter has a close relationship with the increasing severity of the blockade and Western economic sanctions on Syria, and the high cost of importing diesel or gasoline to the Syrian government in light of these sanctions, as the state is no longer able to contain the rising costs of petroleum derivatives. Adding that “the objective is to reduce the losses of the state and reduce the subsidy bill for petroleum derivatives, so that the industrialists bear part of the cost, since they were buying on the black market at a price higher than the new price after the amendment. ” However, the increase in prices inevitably has negative repercussions, since “the increase in the costs of industrial goods as a consequence of the rise in the price of industrial diesel is expected and logical, but with a decrease in the purchasing power of the population in In general, this can contribute to a decrease in the general demand for goods and, therefore, in production, which will have a negative impact on GDP ”according to Assi. Before the increase in the prices of diesel and industrial gasoline, and the consequent increase in the costs of raw materials, Syrians suffered enormous difficulties in life, since the monthly income of the citizen barely covers 10% of their basic needs of food and medicine. Likewise, “the multiplicity of prices, whether for diesel or gasoline, will enable the parallel black market, and will lead to new crises,” according to Assi.

Rising fuel prices will lead to a direct rise in raw material prices

The decisions to raise prices were issued by the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, headed by Talal Al-Barazi, based on the recommendation of the Economic Committee and the request of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, whose minister, Bassam Tohme, confirmed in an interview to the media a few days ago, “The impossibility of raising the prices of petroleum derivatives under any circumstances,” except that his commitment was not fulfilled only for a few days, so the Ministry of Commerce and Protection of Consumer returned and attributed the increase in prices to “the large costs borne by the government to insure oil derivatives, and the high wages for freight and transportation, in the face of the unjust blockade imposed by the US administration on the Syrian people. According to an official statement.

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The Mufti of Damascus and his martyr camp

Last night, the Syrian Endowments Ministry mourned the Mufti of Damascus and his camp, Sheikh Adnan Muhammad Afyouni, saying that he “got up and died after his car was attacked by a terrorist bombing that he left.” The ministry stated that “the device was placed in his car” and was detonated in the Qudsaya area of ​​the Damascus countryside. Sheikh Afyouni is a member of the “Scientific Council of Jurisprudence” of the Syrian Ministry of Endowments and is the general supervisor of the “Al-Sham International Islamic Center for Combating Terrorism and Extremism” in Damascus. The Endowments Ministry described him as “one of the foremost scholars in Syria and the Islamic world.” Afyouni took over as Mufti of Damascus and his camp amid the Syrian crisis in 2013.
(News)