2023-04-26 00:00:48
The rise in the customs dollar at the beginning of this year greatly affected the prices of commodities, although the talk was that it would not affect foodstuffs, for example. Today, you enter the supermarket and you need to save the invoice every time you enter in order to be able to compare the prices on the dollar from time to time, so how? The situation is following raising the customs dollar from 1,515 pounds to 45,000, and what is said regarding approving the price of an exchange platform on the first of May.
Yes, the state will collect taxes and fees starting from the first of May on an exchange platform, and this was confirmed by the sources of the Ministry of Finance to “Al-Nashra”, pointing out that “this is a fact and not just news”. People are accustomed to a huge increase in the dollar, followed by a rise in prices, ” once morest people’s will” and forcing them to deal in dollars.
This is on the one hand, but on the other hand, the citizen has come to think, with every random decision of the caretaker government, that what we have reached is the “summit”, and not a short period of time passes without the government dealing a new blow to the Lebanese with more taxes to push them either to emigration or to mass hysteria.
In this context, the head of the Syndicate of Foodstuff Importers in Lebanon, Hani Bohsali, indicates through the “bulletin” that “if we calculate the customs dollar at 45,000 pounds, then every increase in the customs dollar, given the black market price of 100,000 pounds, will lead to an increase in the prices that pay customs.” High up to 35%, and these items will be affected by a 5% increase in their cost.
“When the customs dollar is raised from 60 to 90 thousand pounds, the increase will affect the items that pay customs up to 35%, or 15% of what we used to be on the dollar, the price of 45 thousand pounds.” This is confirmed by Bohsali, pointing out that “the increase will be on canned vegetables and fruits, and they pay 35% customs,” also explaining that “items that pay 25% will be affected by an increase from 10 to 12%, and the same will apply to sweets and chocolate, while canned meat will be affected by an increase in 3 to 5%. Bohsali stresses that “the union has been calling on Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the ministers for months to exempt items that pay high taxes and have no alternatives from the local industry from the customs dollar, but so far nothing has happened.”
So, the Lebanese economy will suffer further contraction due to the randomness in raising taxes, and the state extending its hand to the citizen’s pocket once once more due to the irresponsible handling of the crisis, instead of finding solutions to remove the burden from the citizen to reach safety.
The question here is, “How does the Lebanese citizen live? And secure his high bills, household needs, and other things, which are all in dollars?!
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