The Lebanese government decided to raise the telecommunications tariffs in May, so the prices of cellular telecommunications services increased fivefold, while the prices of landlines doubled. The government, as well as the Ministry of Communications at the time, said that the decision to raise the tariff is to address the collapse of the sector, given that most of its expenses were in “Fresh” dollars, while its income was still based on the official exchange rate, i.e. 1500 pounds to one dollar.
At the beginning of July, the list of new recharge cards was introduced, with prices in dollars and Lebanese pounds attached to it, so as the price of the cards should be calculated based on Sayrafa rate, but the surprise is that these cards are calculated based on a dollar price that exceeds Sayrafa, as participants discovered that the prices of the cards in Lebanese pounds have risen remarkably based on a rate close to the parallel market dollars.
In an interview with the Minister of Communications in the caretaker government, Johnny Al-Qurm, he told ” Sawt Beirut International, ‘ that the prices of the cards should be calculated based on Sayrafa rate, but some stores do not abide by this decision, justifying that they increase the cost of their expenses due to the high price of the gas can and the electricity bill. . He stressed that he had contacted the Ministry of Economy concerned with monitoring this process, but there was no response or decision on dealing with this chaos.
So the telecommunications sector is loose, and large and small merchants are practicing the worst kind of greed against subscribers of the two cellular networks.