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The subsidy on petrol in Lebanon may eventually be ended
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Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said it was unsustainable
The subsidy on petrol in Lebanon may eventually be ended, with Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar being quoted by local reports on Friday, June 18, as saying that it was unsustainable.
“We have to get used to and be convinced that this subsidy that we benefited from for a year or a year and a half …. will end,” the reports quoted Ghajar as saying.
“Those who can’t pay 200,000 Lebanese pounds (around $13) for a tank should stop using a car and use something else,” he added.
Ghajar said LBP200,000 was the real value of petrol in the country, but people currently pay only LPB40,000 for it.
This comes even as Lebanon battles one of its worst economic crises in at least three decades.
Its central bank is reportedly running out of reserves to fund a program that subsidizes basic goods such as wheat, fuel, and medicine. Its total yearly cost is around $6 billion, with half of it spent on fuel.
Fuel shortages in past weeks have forced Lebanese motorists to queue for hours to get barely any petrol.
The shortages have also forced several petrol pumps to shut down, even as the country’s economy spirals following the exposure of a pyramid scheme by its central bank in late 2019.