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Even though areas under the control of the Syrian regime are witnessing an economic crisis at all levels, the Syrian regime government announced an increase in the prices of subsidized gasoline and diesel operated by factories and factories, amid from the exacerbation of the fuel shortage crisis and an accelerated economic collapse that hits the country, justifying its move by the US sanctions that they imposed.
The price hike coincided with the issuance on Wednesday of two legislative decrees by President Bashar al-Assad. The first includes a financial subsidy for civilian and military employees, and the second adjusts the minimum wages that are exempt from taxes, while more than 80 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line according to the United Nations.
The price of a liter of subsidized gasoline rose from 250 to 450 pounds and industrial diesel from 296 to 650, according to the official news agency “SANA” reported late Tuesday.
The official exchange rate is 1,250 pounds to the dollar and around 2,200 pounds in the parallel market.
The Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Protection attributed the decision to raise prices to “the large costs assumed by the government to insure petroleum derivatives and the high freight and transportation wages in light of the unjust blockade imposed by the US administration on Syria and its people “.
Government-controlled areas have been experiencing a severe fuel crisis and long hours of rationing for years, due to a lack of fuel and gas needed to operate power plants, prompting it to take a series of austerity measures.
Economic sanctions imposed prevent the regular arrival of oil shipments, and the United States’ Caesar Sanctions Act, which took effect in June, has exacerbated the difficulties facing the already depleted economy.
U.S. sanctions on Tehran, Damascus’s most prominent backer, have exacerbated the fuel crisis in Syria, which relies on a line of credit linking it to Iran to secure it.
Economic analysts expect an “inevitable increase” in prices and commodities related to petroleum derivatives.
Since the conflict began in 2011, the oil and gas sector has suffered significant losses estimated at more than $ 74 billion due to fighting and declining production, with the government losing control of major fields as well. like economic sanctions.
Rising prices exacerbate the suffering of Syrians, who wait in long lines for subsidized gasoline and complain about high prices and continuing price rises.
One of the two decrees issued by al-Assad stipulates that a one-time grant will be disbursed in a lump sum of fifty thousand Syrian pounds (about $ 23 according to the parallel market), provided it is exempt from income tax or any deductions, as expressed by the presidency of the republic on its official platforms.
The second decree includes the modification of the “minimum tax-exempt income for wages and salaries to 50 thousand Syrian pounds instead of 15 thousand”.
