Categories identified by the “study” will not be covered by government “support” anymore. This “study” that was published by the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection met with a great wave of anger and resentment.
Since the announcement of the lists exempted from the subsidy, the Minister of Internal Trade, Dr. Amr Salem, has been trying to “clarify the clear and make clear and understandable,” stressing through several media outlets that “what is being circulated from segments that are said to be removed from the subsidy is just collecting information for the study, and it has not been done.” Deciding who will be excluded from support.
The Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection said, “A person who is able to pay 50 or 75 thousand pounds for one meal in a restaurant does not deserve support, and it is not permissible to support it, for example, and the intersection of information will limit these.”
He also pointed out that “the citizen who deserves support will not be affected now or in the near or distant future, but his entitlements will increase from the support, and this is a sovereign and unanimous decision and not the decision of the Minister of Commerce.”
Minister Salem stated that there are more than 5 trillion pounds of the budget allocated for subsidies, and this should not go to those who can afford it, and that defining the groups eligible for support will significantly improve the purchasing power of the citizen.
Minister Salem pointed out that the employee, the unemployed, or the person with a low income, has the right to support and increase the subsidized materials, stressing that the segment of employees will not be deprived or removed from support regardless of their financial level, unless studies prove the ability of their situation, whether through heirs or their possession of more than of a house or car.
The decision is expected to be implemented at the beginning of next year, and an increase in subsidized materials for eligible persons is being studied, and the goal, according to the minister, is not to provide materials to the state, but rather to transfer them to eligible people in different ways.
Fake and informative support!
The decision “under study” was dealt with by specialists “in detail”, clarifying what support the government boasts about. The economic expert, Dr. Ammar Youssef, said in exclusive statements to “Hashtag”, that the government “believes itself that it supports”, and in fact all that is happening is an expression About “campaigns of pride in front of the citizen and false and media support.”
The economic expert gives an example of the so-called government support for the citizen by purchasing a bottle of oil per month using the “smart card” from the Syrian Trade Establishment, at the rate of one package per family per month.
For example, one package for a family of 5, which is sold to him at a price of 2000 pounds cheaper than the market, means that the state subsidizes one citizen with 400, as well as for “subsidized” sugar and rice.
The case applies to “fuel subsidy” when each family is allocated for the whole year a share of 50 liters of heating oil at the amount of 500 pounds per liter compared to that it is sold at 1,700 freely, and therefore the subsidy is for every 1,200 liters that is divided throughout the year and the citizen’s share is 100 pounds per liter every liter per month.
The economist returned and confirmed that the support announced by the government is due to it through the mass of low salaries that the employee receives, as it “supports on the one hand and returns and takes support from salaries”, and therefore “the citizen is the one who supports the government, not the other way around.”
Youssef wondered about the amounts that the government receives from fees and taxes, and why they were not reflected in the support, pointing to a number of mental and health diseases that citizens suffer from due to government measures.
Youssef expected the implementation of what the ministry called a “study” for the groups exempted from the subsidy in a literal way, and its implementation in the coming days without change.
Leak or poke!
In turn, the economic expert, Ali Muhammad, said on his personal Facebook page that the current state of support is marred by a lot of waste and corruption, and the amounts spent on support constitute an important percentage of the Syrian government budget, for example, it is about 5530 billion Syrian pounds, or 42% of the budget. Budget size 2022.
What has been published as a “leak” or “poke” to public opinion is nothing but a government action to frame this support and direct it to the deserving to a greater degree, and there is no doubt that some of its clauses are acceptable, but some of the other clauses are misrepresented as they contain many loopholes and some injustice sometimes. What arouses the ire of public opinion, was and will remain in any government decision, is “What are your studies that led to such a decision and such items?”
He added, “I think that public opinion has focused on this question more than anything else…I think that the posts of the Minister of Internal Trade have become more calm than they are now,” according to Mohammed.
hashtag _ Exclusive
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