Parliamentarians Demand Cut in Fuel Prices

Members of the Syrian parliament have called for a fall in heating fuel prices as an urgent priority, according to a December 19 article on the pro-government website Syria News.



Last May, the Syrian government ended its longstanding policy of heavily subsidising the price of heating fuel, and instead introduced a scheme where each household was entitled to buy 1,000 litres a year at nine lira a litre. That price still represented a subsidy, although higher than the previous seven lira per litre, but if people wanted to buy more than the set amount they had to go to the open market where prices were almost three times higher.



Member of parliament Ammar Bekdash told Syria News that reducing the retail price of fuel could help lower production costs and make the economy more competitive.



Adnan Dakhakinin, another member of parliament and head of the Association for Consumer Protection, told the website that fuel prices needed to come down because people’s purchasing power was declining.