Damascus-SANA
The Prime Minister, Engineer Hussein Arnous, affirmed that the illegal Western coercive economic measures imposed on Syria are the cause of the suffering of its people, stressing that the policy of support is an essential component of the Syrian economy and there will be no retreat from it, but its forms may vary to ensure that it reaches its beneficiaries.
Engineer Arnous said in an interview with Al-Souria channel tonight that the recent government decision to amend the price of bread and diesel is one of the difficult decisions that took enough time to study, as we all know that a bundle of bread costs the state today 1200 Syrian pounds, and a liter of diesel costs it 1967 pounds, and therefore the bundle of bread is still subsidized. With a thousand pounds, as well as fuel subsidized by about 1500 pounds, what happened was a simple move from the previous prices, not an increase, in order to ensure the continuity of securing these materials and for the government to remain able to do so, as we still take less than 10 percent of their value.
Engineer Arnous explained that this issue has been studied in the relevant committees and in the Economic Committee, and we have considered that it is the responsibility of the state to remain able to maintain the insurance of these two articles, moving their prices, especially that the move is not to introduce revenues to the state, but to direct specific support from all segments to a target group, which is the employee segment And retirees, who are the most affected segments of the movement of prices and the increase in costs at the present time.
Engineer Arnous stressed that the policy of support is an essential component of the Syrian economy, and support is not only for bread and oil derivatives, but for everything. The state budget comes from two parts, a split in revenues and a split in spending, and the revenue comes from oil derivatives and their exports, wheat and cotton exports, and tourism and taxes imposed on economic activities. They are the components of budget revenues, while spending is with salaries, compensation and support provided by the state, explaining that moving the price does not mean income for the budget, but rather means reducing part of the burden on the budget.
Engineer Arnous pointed out that Syria was previously producing 365 thousand barrels of oil per day, from which it exports about 200 thousand barrels and consumes 180 thousand barrels, but today, because of the control of criminal gangs and the American occupation over the oil sources, all that the state can secure from the areas under its control is 18 thousand barrels, which means That this basic resource of the budget has now become a burden on it, as the state buys it with foreign currency to secure it, and when we say that we support this derivative with more than 75 percent of its value, this is the ultimate support and not a reduction in support, and therefore in order to continue securing these derivatives, this decision was not an easy decision for The launch was accompanied by many measures that the government took in order not to resort to larger increases.
And engineer Arnous indicated that the return of oil derivatives during the last period was 64 billion pounds per month. As for the increase in salaries, wages and pension compensation for retirees, it was 84 billion pounds in the general budget of the state, and therefore there are 20 billion more than these revenues, and these 20 billion came from improving state revenues from Collection operations and arranging the state’s priorities for some projects, pointing out that citizens were waiting for greater increases, but until we reached this increase, we carried the state’s general budget 20 billion pounds.
Engineer Arnous clarified that the issue of salary increase was studied over a period of more than six months through economic committees, cabinet committees and bilateral meetings, and the implications of this issue were discussed, and all the government team wanted the increase to be one hundred percent, and some put forward more than that, but this talk when we studied it By examining the sense of where the resources come from and what is reflected in this issue on the state’s general budget and on the economic reality in the country.. Things have changed. The state is not built on emotions and desires, but rather requires that there be a deliberate decision.
Engineer Arnous pointed out that this increase "50 percent for workers and 40 percent for retirees" cost the state treasury 84 billion pounds, so how if we want to go to a 100 percent increase, it is certain that we will burden the budget with greater burdens and there will be deficit financing and deficit financing leads to inflation and inflation in turn leads to effects We may not touch it directly, but after a year or two, the budget will bear the burden, and we feel that if we take the right decision, and this is what the trade-off was made, as we saw that this situation moves the employees to a better degree than they are now, and the budget can bear this additional burden resulting from this increase and therefore We took this decision that the salary increase will be 50 percent for employees and 40 percent for retirees.
Arnous pointed out that structuring the economy is one of the things that needs time and does not come overnight or by rapid leaps. Restructuring always goes to an intermediate stage and sometimes to a long stage that takes more than 10 years, and we started with an absolute conviction that this support must be structured and must The most vulnerable segments of society benefit from it, indicating that the decision to amend the two materials of bread and diesel was studied after studying its repercussions on agriculture, industry, transportation and all these matters. Therefore, we decided this increase. When we said 500 liras, why did we not go to 600, 700 or 300? We studied the decision that The economy can afford it. On the same day we issued the decision to increase the prices of bread and diesel, transportation prices between governorates and within governorates were adjusted.
Engineer Arnous stressed that the policy of subsidy is an essential component of economic policy in Syria, and there will be no retreat from it, but its forms may vary and restructure to ensure that it reaches its beneficiaries, indicating that this support does not include only bread and diesel, but rather education, health, medicine, irrigation, agriculture and all aspects, for example the state. It subsidizes bread daily with 5 to 6 billion pounds, and it will never withdraw the subsidy file, but it will restructure it to reach the eligible segments.
Engineer Arnous pointed out that the United States escalated its economic war on Syria when it tightened the economic siege and unilateral coercive measures and impeded the delivery of the main needs, which reflected negatively on everything related to what the citizen needs, indicating that the so-called “Caesar’s Law” was not the first of these illegal measures nor The last of these measures was imposed on Syria more than ten years ago in various forms, and the “Caesar Law” came to raise its rank to touch friends, but we, as a Syrian people, have been applied to us for a long time and came to be applied to companies that deal with us.
Engineer Arnous indicated that the state today incurs additional costs as a result of this unjust law, which prompted us to rely on self-reliance and production, focus on the agricultural sector, support industry and small projects, establish microfinance, and fully stress the production work cycle in all directions to overcome the negative effects of the “Caesar Law” and our hope. It is great with our people, ourselves, and the leadership’s directives to focus on self-reliance in order to get rid of these sanctions, and we were able to find great opportunities and successes in this field.
Engineer Arnous pointed out that more than 62 billion Syrian pounds were spent during the past year and this year on improving water networks that were destroyed by terrorism, as well as rehabilitating agricultural facilities and agricultural projects, indicating that the government is not satisfied with the level of services provided, but it has capabilities to employ in the directions and priorities that serve The largest segment of people. We mention here that yesterday in Homs, a hospital with a capacity of 300 beds was opened, at a cost of more than 15 billion Syrian pounds. This is an achievement in light of the unjust ban. Pollution has also been removed from Tartous Beach at a cost of 7 to 8 billion pounds.
Regarding the electricity situation, Engineer Arnous said in Syria before the war, we had nine thousand megabytes and we reached a stage where we supply electricity to Lebanon and some countries, and despite the terrorists targeting this sector, we have today a generating capacity of five thousand megabytes, 2300 megabytes are operated, and the rest needs fuel and gas, and everyone knows that the occupation The Americans and criminal gangs control oil and gas, indicating that the electricity situation is currently declining due to the restoration of many sectors that work on electricity, as there are today 54 laboratories in the public sector and 80,000 industrial units in the private sector are operating, and these need electricity.
On the issue of the exchange rate, Eng. Arnous said that there is coordination between the financial, monetary and economic policy, and this enabled us during this period to stabilize the exchange rate and achieve the goals that we are working to achieve. Many citizens say we stopped the loans.. We did not stop the loans at all and they are available for productive projects, but we have strengthened the financing We have strengthened the small one to the limit of 500 million and more than 500 million within a timetable for implementation. I mean, today, a person cannot come and say I want one billion Syrian pounds, and I give him what he asks for. Rather, I finance his project with one billion Syrian pounds, but within the work calendar that he presents and within a work implementation program, and therefore this topic is what It enabled us to maintain the exchange rate.
Engineer Arnous added, “We are a country that has been under siege for ten years, and our money is stolen, and unfortunately today the whole world is silent, as there is every day a fleet of tankers that openly steal Syrian wheat and oil, and they fight us for a living because of Syria’s adherence to its sovereign decision that does not bargain.” And without the unjust war, Syria’s economy would have been in Excellent situation, hope is great, and our motto for the next stage is hope for work. Under this title, all capabilities will be placed, and therefore there is no fear for Syria, because it has all the elements of the economy, and all it asks for is to lift the injustice of its people and stop the theft of its wealth, stressing that Syria’s tomorrow and its future are better because its economy is diversified and its people are strong, resistant, productive and creative. .