The Lebanese Consumers Association on Monday condemned the massive increase in prices “for the first time in the history of Lebanon at rates exceeding 40 percent within 3 months.”
The statement deplored the caretaker government’s idleness facing the situation. “The caretaker government is watching and the designated prime minister has not announced any position; however, the depth of the crisis entails a government that thinks differently,” the statement added.
It suggested that the new government, when formed, began to get rid of the “false economics claims and jettison boasting about the pioneering and capable role of banks,” and opted instead for studying the experiences of countries that had been subjected to collapse.
The measures to reduce the crisis at this exceptional stage should be extraordinary, the statement stressed, adding that the Consumers’ Association, which has accompanied the social, economic, and health conditions of the Lebanese citizen for 20 years, proposes to the Lebanese government to take the following measures to curb prices and eliminate the injustice caused to most nationals:
- Expanding the scope of social security items to include the following sectors: medicine, all basic grains, fuel, meat, milk, and cheese and milk.
The state should support the aforementioned imports and fix their prices to remain within the poorest citizen’s reach.
-Be aware of the fact that subsidies for some commodities have in the past turned into support for traders in this or that sector. For example, mills, bakeries, diesel oil dealers, sugar beets, and others.
-There is no necessity to support local vegetables and fruits but rather immediate investment in agriculture by allocating a double budget to agriculture and industry. That is, opting for a productive economy model. Within this framework, expatriates can play an important assisting role through Lebanese capital, which is available in most of the countries of the world.
- The immediate liberalization of the economy by abolishing all forms of monopoly in all sectors.
- Imposing the use of the national currency immediately as the sole currency in internal transactions, on top of which are all forms of billing, and the allocation of foreign currencies for imports only.
TWEET YOUR COMMENT