The Lebanese passport, one of the most expensive in the world. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin)
BEIRUT — Renewing a 10-year passport in Lebanon will now cost LL10 million, or $108 at the current parallel market exchange rate.
"All fees for services offered by the General Security (GS) have increased", a source in the organization told L'Orient-Le Jour. The cost of renewing a 10-year passport is now LL10 million. For those under 18, passports can only be issued or renewed for five years, at a cost of LL6 million. To benefit from the express passport service, Lebanese citizens will have to pay an additional LL4,200,000. This express service delivers a passport within one working week (the ordinary application requires one month to five working weeks for the passport to be issued).
Legitimate decision?
This fee increase will be reflected in all the services offered by the GS, which is in charge of issuing residence permits to foreigners, according to a short press release issued by the organization earlier this month. The press release also announced that as of June 24, "all fees for operations submitted to the GS will be updated on the basis of the decree" approved by the government and published on June 23.
Cabinet approved the decree following its proposal by the ministries of the interior and finance. The decision has been the subject of controversy, as any new tax or increase in existing compulsory levies normally requires a law passed by Parliament.
In certain cases, however, Parliament can expressly authorize the executive to modify certain taxes. This was the case, for example, for customs duties, for which the government received authorization from Parliament (law No. 93 of Oct. 10, 2018). The cabinet, for its part, transferred this competence to the High Customs Council.
However, this does not appear to be the case for GS fees. What is more, the government has been in caretaker mode for more than a year, which casts doubt on the legality of the fees imposed.
According to two lawyers contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, who wished to remain anonymous, the only "roundabout way" of legitimately passing these fee increases would have been to intervene on the exchange rate, or rather, to adjust the existing fees to the official exchange rate (LL15,000 to the dollar), to that of the Sayrafa platform (LL86,200 to the dollar, according to the latest update on Tuesday evening) or even to the free market rate (LL92,500 to the dollar, according to the lirarate.org website).