Fuel Prices Hiked in Lebanon after Baabda Deal
Lebanon’s Directorate General of Oil on Sunday announced a hike in the prices of gasoline, diesel and cooking gas based on a deal that was reached at Saturday’s meeting in Baabda.
In a statement, the Directorate said the new prices will become applicable after the current stocks run out, noting that oil companies, distributors and gas stations are obliged to sell their existing stocks at the prices stipulated by the schedule of August 11, 2021.
Below are the new prices according to the new schedule issued on Sunday:
- 20 liters of 98-octane gasoline: LBP 133,200
- 20 liters of 95-octane gasoline: LBP 129,000
- 20 liters of diesel oil: LBP 101,500
- One cylinder of cooking gas: LBP 90,400
Lebanese officials had on Saturday agreed to a short-term compromise to maintain fuel subsidies. Earlier this month, the central bank said it could no longer support fuel imports at a preferential exchange rate, in what many saw as a de facto end to subsidies.
Widespread panic ensued, with distributors scaling back deliveries until new prices were announced and desperate motorists forming long queues outside petrol stations.
At a time when state electricity supply is almost non-existent, diesel has also been in short supply to run back-up generators to power homes, businesses and even hospitals.
On Saturday evening, the presidency announced approval of a "request for the Bank of Lebanon to open a temporary account to cover urgent and exceptional subsidies for fuel."
A kitty of up to $225 million would be set aside to subsidize imports of gasoline, diesel and cooking gas until the end of September, it said.
The decision was taken at a Baabda meeting attended by the president, the central bank chief and the caretaker prime minister, as well as the outgoing ministers of finance and energy.
The central bank previously provided fuel importers with dollars at an intermediate exchange rate of 3,900 pounds to the greenback, and fuel prices were fixed by the energy ministry based on this rate.
The Bank of Lebanon would now ensure the ministry could set prices based on an exchange rate of 8,000 pounds to the dollar, the presidency and the prime minister's office said.
Lebanese officials have blamed the fuel crisis on hoarding by distributors seeking to sell at higher prices, as well as smuggling to war-torn Syria.
Lebanese economist Nassib Ghobril said the agreement was a "compromise" that sought to allow fuel importers to release more stock and reduce shortages.
"But it will not solve the problem," the chief economist at the Byblos Bank Group said.
"The solution is to lift subsidies completely. That would lead to the disappearance of these long lines at the gas stations, and discourage smuggling," he said.
In recent days, the army has forced filling stations hoarding petrol to sell it, and security forces have cracked down on smuggling.
Saturday's decision comes a week after a fuel tank blast killed more than 30 people clamoring for petrol in northern Lebanon.
Lebanon is mired in what the World Bank has described as one of the world's worst economic crises since the 1850s, and more than three-quarters of the population now live in poverty.
Source: Naharnet
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