A section of the highway in Daoura, north of Beirut. (Credit: P.H.B./L'Orient-Le Jour)
Many in Lebanon rushed Wednesday in a panic to the offices of LibanPost and OMT to pay their mechanic control tax, due for 2023, as well as any arrears.
This annual tax, the collection of which falls under the responsibility of the Interior Ministry, is levied on most vehicle owners.
L’Orient-Le Jour visited two OMT agencies located between Baabda and Hazmieh between noon and 2 p.m. yesterday.
Both agencies said they ran out of tax forms. Around the same time and within the same area, LibanPost also stopped processing applications.
The initial source of this rumor could not be clearly identified, but it was relayed by many individuals between Beirut and the Metn and Keserwan areas.
According to all the testimonies collected by L’Orient-Le Jour, people were warned by third parties that the tax would now be calculated at the rate of LL15,000 to the US dollar instead of the former official peg of LL1,507.5 to the dollar.
Some of the people who were interviewed said that they were told that the new tax will be applied on Thursday, while others said they were informed that the new tax will take effect starting Feb. 1.
Multiplied by 10
The rumor remains strange, to say the least. The mechanic control tax is initially calculated in lira. This would therefore imply that the authorities first converted the amount in lira into US dollars based on the official peg, and then performed the opposite operation, but this time using the LL15,000-to-$1 rate. This would mean that the amounts would be multiplied by 10, but to cushion the impact of the news, the new measure was announced differently since the LL15,000 rate is still much lower than the parallel market rate, which yesterday stood at around LL47,000 to $1.
Starting Dec. 1, 2022, the state administration started applying the LL15,000 rate to calculate customs fees in lira from their dollar price, in a context of gradual adjustment of compulsory levies — taxes and duties — vis-à-vis the national currency depreciation.
However, this rumor was denied early afternoon on Wednesday by a source at the General Directorate of Road Traffic, who spoke to the press saying that such a change would have to be ratified by law in Parliament.
An internal source at LibanPost as well as a second source at the Finance Ministry, both speaking without any express authorization, said this was “disinformation.”
In addition, no item on the agenda of the next cabinet session, mainly scheduled for Monday, concerns the mechanic control tax and Parliament has no plenary session scheduled for the moment.
An insurer who also wished to remain anonymous said that he did not rule out the possibility that the rumor was launched to push taxpayers to pay what they owe.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Sahar Ghoussoub.
