Corm says tariff increases could be revisited

BEIRUT — “The decision to increase telecom tariffs is not immutable,” caretaker Telecom Minister Johnny Corm said Thursday, a week after the implementation of steep increases in telecom prices, which the minister considered “one of the most difficult decisions of [his] life”, Corm told local television station MTV.

Here’s what we know:

   • “We’re going to see the consequences of this decision after a month, and everything can be reconsidered,” Corm continued, adding that “there are two weeks to respond to complaints presented to the State Shura Council about stopping the increase in price increases.”

   • Updated prices rely on the Sayrafa dollar to lira conversion rate — the rate set by the central bank, which is lower than the parallel market rate but much higher than the official exchange rate of LL1,500 to the dollar — to set tariffs, leading to increases that sparked outrage among users who could no longer afford services and several protests against the new prices.

   • The price increases come amid the third year of an economic crisis that plunged 80 percent of Lebanon’s population under the poverty line. On Oct. 17, 2019 a series of uprisings were sparked, in part, by the decision to impose a tax on the usage of messaging app WhatsApp.