The performance of internal trade under the dome of the People’s Assembly… Minister Salem: There is no decision yet on the groups excluded from support

Damascus-SANA

The People's Assembly, in its twenty-second session of the fourth regular session of the third legislative session, held under the chairmanship of Hamouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the Assembly, discussed the performance of the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection and issues related to its work.

The Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Dr. Amr Salem, gave a presentation on the ministry’s work and its work plan, indicating that 30 Syrian Trade Showrooms were selected in Damascus to be accredited for bread to enable citizens to receive their allowances and to supply each bakery with an employee from the Syrian Trade for follow-up. This experiment will later be circulated to all halls.

Minister Salem indicated that a decision was taken to treat Syrian trade halls and public bakeries as other private sector entities with regard to ration controls. The mills, silos and bakeries recently contributed to the seizure of very large quantities of stolen food flour in Deir ez-Zor. The entire quantities were recovered and the violators were referred to the judiciary.

Minister Salem stressed that, to date, no decision has been taken regarding the segments excluded from the support, considering that the support is aid to those who need it and that those who do not need aid and do not deserve it will not receive it. What is provided from this exclusion will not go to the treasury, but will be reflected on those who deserve support In different ways, either by increasing their income or increasing the number of subsidized materials and so on.

In their interventions on the ministry’s work, a number of members demanded that the decisions related to lifting subsidies for certain segments be presented to the People’s Assembly for approval, since these decisions, if any, are related to society as a whole. Outside their provinces and increase the allocations of bread and the abolition of accredited.

Some members stressed the importance of tightening supply control over the hala markets and malls, controlling prices, holding monopolists and those who manipulate people’s livelihood accountable, and increasing Syrian support for trade for owners of micro-agricultural enterprises by purchasing their products and granting licenses to establish bakeries in the countryside, taking into account the geographical distribution in a way that ensures the provision of bread to citizens in a fair manner.

A number of members called for studying the possibility of converting the entire value of the subsidy into a cash allowance, checking the work of the Syrian trade halls, creating a number of refrigeration units, and securing gas for the self-employed.

In his response to the members’ interventions and inquiries, the Minister of Internal Trade confirmed that seizures had been issued against a number of people who traded bread in front of the bakeries and referred them to the judiciary, pointing out that one of the violators’ daily profits amounted to 500,000 Syrian pounds, pointing out that there are almost daily seizures in the Damascus countryside governorate of thousands of tons of Semi-dairy products are unfit for human consumption.

Minister Salem stressed that there is no intention to gradually or completely lift the subsidy, pointing out that replacing commodity subsidies with cash subsidies requires an infrastructure to activate it.

He pointed out that there is great corruption in the governorates of Aleppo and Hama with regard to ration flour, indicating that great seizures have been made of cases of monopoly and the transfer of perpetrators to the judiciary and the collection of billions of Syrian pounds as fines from them. Seizure catering for the right of the Syrian galleries of trade in the province of Latakia.

The Council also approved the draft law that includes granting a period of two years to companies that have not reconciled their statuses in accordance with the provisions of Article 224 of the Companies Law promulgated by Legislative Decree No. 29 of 2011 in order for them to reconcile their status and make the necessary amendments to their articles of incorporation and articles of association, and it has become a law.

The Council also agreed, by majority, to refer the President of the Republic’s letter No. 50 and BC dated 11/24/2021, which includes restoring the financial law of administrative units, which was approved by the People’s Assembly in its session held on 4/11/2021, to a joint committee composed of the constitutional and legislative affairs and local administration and development committees. Urban to prepare the necessary report on it.

The Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs, Abdullah Abdullah, gave a presentation at the beginning of the session on a summary of the topics and decisions discussed by the Council of Ministers in its previous session related to service and living issues of concern to citizens.

The meeting was adjourned to 12 noon tomorrow.