A false witness to the rule of the cartels

The Ministry of Economy pushed for the formation of the National Council for Price Policies, and President Michel Aoun met it with his quick signature of the decree forming the council. The task of its members, according to the statement of Economy Minister Amin Salam, is “to work on setting a price policy following the Ministry of Economy was solely concerned with this responsibility through the Consumer Protection Department.” He added, “Each sector will have to give its opinion on price policy, which will enhance oversight and set things right through scientific and technical practice.”

Salam’s words suggested that the council has the powers to curb prices and the behavior of commercial monopolies aimed at achieving huge profits at the expense of consumers and their meager incomes. However, the reality is that the council is nothing more than a body to certify what the sons of the ruling forces and their capitalist partners say. It is headed by the Minister of Economy, and includes representatives from the Association of Banks, the Association of Industrialists, the Banque du Liban and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. As for the presence of representatives of the General Labor Union, it is clearer evidence that the process of participating in drawing up price policies will only be a formality and that these will be false witnesses to the rule of the cartels.
According to concerned sources, the Ministry of Economy, “which is unable to control price evasion in the market, wanted to place all ministries and relevant departments before their responsibilities, under supervision.” In a clearer sense, it will embarrass the parties concerned with oversight and shove responsibilities with them in the context of saying that it is an attempt to push them to take action. The source added that the formation of the council also aims to “put the Ministry of Finance before its duty to monitor companies in terms of tax declarations.” In the first place, this task does not need to be reminded of as long as it is an existing task, and the Council does not have the authority to hold any party accountable for its negligence, or for its failure to carry out its duties towards consumers. It must also be noted that the issue is not so simple as long as public sector employees suffer greatly in moving from their place of residence to their place of work due to the high cost of transportation in light of their poor salaries and purchasing power. In this sense, surveillance becomes a title for private blackmail. But what is remarkable is that, according to the source, “all the parties forming the council are convinced of the futility of the policeman and stick policy amidst the current chaos, but the solution is a clear monetary policy.”
There is an additional problem related to the absence of the Consumer Protection Association, i.e. the representation of merchants and banks in return for the meager representation of the consumer, which raises suspicions that price engineering is once morest the interests of consumers.
In fact, there are two reasons that prompted the formation of the council; The first is to establish that the Ministry of Economy is not the only one responsible for monitoring the markets, in the sense of alleviating the burden of people’s complaints regarding them. The second is the desire of the Minister of Economy to promote himself and appear in the image of the present minister in a time of crisis. As soon as the council was formed, it called the representatives of importers of goods and foodstuffs and supermarkets to a meeting that was supposed to be held a long time ago if the goal was really to draw up price policy. The crisis began more than two years ago, and the repercussions of the rise in the price of the dollar pushed price inflation nearly 800%.
Starting from Salam’s own words regarding achievements and benefits, the head of the Consumer Protection Association, Zuhair Berro, criticizes what he describes as “medieval superstition.” He points out that the council’s mission is “to cover up the fact that the state and its institutions are degrading, in exchange for the sovereignty of banks and monopolists, according to official frameworks that increase their ability to control markets.”

The council’s task is to cover up the fact that the state and its institutions are disintegrating in exchange for the sovereignty of banks and monopolies

The irony is that successive ministers of economy have neglected the legally formed National Consumer Protection Council since 2006, and cheered the Price Council, knowing that if the intent of oversight is pure, nothing prevents the application of the aging consumer protection law since 2005, without taking into account merchants or any other party. This is what Bru sees as “silencing the legitimate representatives of the consumer, and listening only to the hymns of merchants and monopolies.” Beyond that, deceiving the Lebanese regarding their accomplishments is too much of an exaggeration, just because this council has no authority to take effective steps such as fixing prices on a specific exchange rate or setting a price for the customs dollar, for example, or coming up with a new price platform.
Economically, price boards are not suitable under a free economic system, as it is not possible to direct prices with them. Accordingly, Berro believes that the council “fell before it started,” asking whether “the concerned people know that prices in a free economy are a mirror of economic reality from production to import and export, competition, monopolies, corruption and taxes, and that they do not depend on platforms, nor do councils monitor prices correct, Rather, it is by changing the non-national consumer dependency economy that is unable to develop despite human competencies.”
The “Manboush” council summarizes the misery of the authority and institutions that have no meaning except in covering the control of monopolies. Just as the Parliament, which did not accomplish anything for the benefit of the Lebanese during the two and a half years of the crisis, there are little expectations from the Price Council.