The fuel crisis has returned again, this time from the dollar gate. After the exchange rate of the dollar against the pound rose very rapidly, it was no longer possible to keep up with it in pricing operations, especially for products that are priced in Lebanese pounds, such as fuel.
This prompted the owners of gas stations to demand the Ministry of Energy to issue a schedule for installing fuel prices in dollars, waving the closure of the stations and stopping work. The request of the owners of gas stations was met with the refusal of the Minister of Energy in the caretaker government, Walid Fayyad, who refused pricing in dollars because it is against the law.
Today, the fuel market witnessed the closure of some petrol stations that raised their hoses due to the instability of the dollar exchange rate and the continuous insane rise.
Gas stations
For its part, the Syndicate of Station Owners in Lebanon sent a letter to the Minister of Energy and Water in the caretaker government, Walid Fayyad, in which it considered that “everyone knows what things have reached in the fuel market in Lebanon, in light of the continuous rise of the exchange rate of the dollar on the black market.”
She pointed out that “after exhausting all the solutions that the ministry has taken over the past years under the directives of your Excellency, from attempts to improve the status of the stations, the last but not least of which is to reach two schedules per day and even the issuance of a schedule for holidays, all of this did not benefit the stability of the fuel market due to the continuous rise of the dollar.” “.
And I asked Minister Fayyad to “take the initiative, and out of necessity, to allow the prohibitions to issue a price fixing schedule in US dollars over a limited period until the situation stabilizes, for the benefit of the citizen and the owner of the station alike,” thanking him for “the tremendous efforts that he made and is still making.”
Fayyad refused
And after the owners of the stations met in Fayyad this afternoon, and in response to their warning to go to the closure in the event that gasoline was not priced in dollars, the Minister of Energy confirmed to LBCI that the ministry is working on a platform to issue more than two schedules per day, in line with the fluctuation of the exchange rate, but we will not go to pricing gasoline in dollars. We will not break the law. Fayyad explained that according to the consumer protection law, the material must reach the citizen in Lebanese pounds.
