President Bashar al-Assad has recently issued two significant legislative decrees aimed at enhancing the financial well-being of both civilian and military employees. The first decree numbered 11, introduces a remarkable development by augmenting salaries and lump sum wages by an impressive 100 percent. This increase encompasses all civil and military personnel within the State, extending its benefits to individuals of diverse categories, such as celebrities, daily labourers, and temporary workers. This comprehensive enhancement pertains to various employment statuses, including agents, casual workers, seasonal employees, contractors, individuals under employment contracts, and those appointed through scoring schedules or administrative mechanisms. It equally extends its provisions to part-time labourers and those compensated based on production or fixed and variable remuneration structures.
To finance the implementation of this progressive legislative decree, funds will be sourced from the accumulated savings across different segments and divisions of the state budget for the fiscal year 2023. This allocation covers workers whose salaries and wages are drawn from this budget. Furthermore, it encompasses savings from the budgetary provisions of the economic public sector entities and public construction companies that remunerate their workforce through the aforementioned budget. Additionally, it embraces savings derived from the various sections and items of the annual budgets for the year 2023 for other public entities within the state.
Against the backdrop of the government’s strategic initiative to optimize subsidy allocation, the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection has unveiled a series of decisions. These measures underscore the Ministry’s commitment to targeted subsidy distribution, beginning with the reduction of partial subsidies on gasoline and diesel. Notably, the pricing adjustments exclude bread from any modifications. Specifically, the Ministry’s directives include the standardization of the price of subsidized and unrestricted 90-octane gasoline at 8,000 SYPs per litre. Simultaneously, the pricing for 95-octane gasoline is revised to 13,500 SYPs.
The pricing modifications also encompass subsidized diesel, which will now be available at two thousand SYPs. In a parallel adjustment, bakeries will be charged 700 SYPs for diesel. Moreover, industrial diesel, intended for agricultural use beyond the subsidized allotment, agricultural industries, private hospitals, and pharmaceutical laboratories, will be priced at 8,000 SYPs per litre. Additional revisions outline the pricing for diesel utilized within the industrial sector and other domains not covered by prior decisions. Under this framework, the cost per litre for diesel stands at 11,550 SYPs, and the price per ton of fuel is set at 7,887,500 SYPs. The cost per ton of liquefied gas is established at 9,372,500 SYPs.
In response to concerns about the escalated prices of 90-octane gasoline and diesel, a government source has affirmed that despite these fluctuations, subsidies remain intact. The source further elucidates that the original per-liter cost amounts to approximately 12,000 SYPs per unit.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
