A hydrocarbon filling center in Amchit (Jbeil). (Credit: P.H.B.)
Fuel-importing companies announced on Tuesday evening that they would stop delivering their products starting Wednesday morning in protest against a provision in the 2024 state budget that imposes a fine or exceptional tax on companies that have imported goods benefiting from the Central Bank's subsidies.
Between 2020 and 2021, after the onset of the country's economic crisis, marked by a sharp depreciation of the Lebanese pound, imports of certain products, including fuel, benefited from subsidies. These subsidies made it possible to obtain foreign currency for imports, at a more advantageous rate than that available on the parallel market. These subsidies were gradually lifted, against a backdrop of fuel shortages and illegal stockpiling of products. The 2024 budget plans to impose an exceptional tax on companies that "benefited from these subsidies."
In a press release, the companies importing petrol, diesel and gas argued that it was not they who had benefited from these subsidies, but "consumers." They denounced a piece of legislation that had been "decided in haste and not accompanied by any study". The adoption of this measure "will lead to the destruction of the sector" and will make it "impossible to import" certain products, according to them.
To protest against this tax, they decided to stop delivering their fuels from Wednesday "and until the problem is solved." They have also threatened to "suspend imports once their current stock is exhausted."
The budget was approved last Friday. It has yet to be published in the Official Gazette before it comes into force.