Towards an increase in gas and electricity prices?

In early July, Syrians were surprised by the decision of the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection to increase the price of subsidized sugar and rice by more than 100%. However, the ministry returned after 24 hours and cut the price by 50%, under pressure from the widespread criticism it faced. On October 20, the Syrian government raised the price of a liter of gasoline by 100%, after increasing the price of unsupported commercial and industrial diesel by roughly 100% as well. On the 29th of the same month, the ministry raised the price of bread by 100%. These joint decisions were preceded by the assertion by the oil and domestic trade ministries that there is no intention to increase the prices of petroleum derivatives and food supplies, and that “bread is still supported by the state. “, according to Prime Minister Hussein Arnous, who assured that” the bread will not be touched except within simple limits. ” . But the government has gone beyond those limits, raising the price of bread three times since the crisis erupted in 2011.

“A package of bread costs the Syrian state 700 pounds, while it is sold to the citizen for 100 pounds.” With this formula, the government justified the recent increase in the price of bread. But the former parliamentarian, Nabil Saleh, qualifies these justifications as “absurd”, explaining in a statement to “Al-Akhbar” that “talking about the losses of the State in bread is false”, because “the one who produces the bread is practically the peasant who produces wheat and the worker who bakes it, while The role of the government is limited to regulating its sale ”, adding that“ people have the right to have free bread, as is the case of the cattle that feed this bread outside of schedule, because it is no longer fit for human consumption. ”Saleh concludes by saying:“ Even prisoners and criminals get their bread effortlessly. ”For his part, the industrialist Atef Tayfour, in an interview with Al-Akhbar, explains that“ the daily bread consumption in Syria is 5,000 tons, and the recent increase of 25 pounds per kilo is equivalent to 137 million daily, that is, with a total annual value that does not exceed 50 billion ”.,” It is not worth going up the price of these 50 billion under the pretext of loss a, whenever it is possible to offset the specified mass with another item “.

The government will continue this policy because it has no options

With these price increases, bread has become an important part of the income of Syrians, and it is no longer easy for them to obtain it, so they are waiting for the government’s next stage to go up. gas and electricity prices. In this context, an informed source, “Al-Akhbar”, states that “Syria’s electricity consumption today is a quarter of its consumption in 2011, which means that the cost of electricity subsidies is low. However, Syria still faces a serious financial problem in this regard, “considering that” The state has no choice but to go for further liberalization and raise prices, to ensure some savings for the treasury. ” The Minister of Finance, Kinan Yaghi, announced that “the increase in the price of industrial diesel has achieved savings of 3000 and 70 billion dollars in food flour.” It has been hit in detail, and the consumer capacity of the citizen, which is one of the sources of growth, is being greatly eroded. Consequently, “the government will continue with its policy due to the lack of options before it, and because it has the peace of mind that the people are tired and will not protest or act,” according to the same source.
However, the scenes of people gathered in queues and cages in front of the ovens to get a bundle of bread, in light of the repeated talks by the Ministry of Internal Trade about the difficulty of securing flour as a result of the sanctions. On the other hand, there are queues for the latest version of a mobile device from the American company “Apple” iPhone 12 – iphone 12 pro », which means, according to economists, that” the road of luxury is passable to Syria “and that “The luxury goods import market can avoid sanctions even if the importing company is sanctioned. In this context, data from the International Trade Center (ICT) indicates that smartphones topped the list of Syrian imports for 2019, and the data shows that “the largest mass of Syrian imports was of electronic equipment, amounting to $ 259 million, of which UAE $ 241 million Most of it is mobile phones for cellular networks, which is equivalent to the combined grain and sugar imports in 2019, reaching $ 138 million for rice, wheat, flour and corn, and $ 120 million for sugar.

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