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Joseph Farah wrote in Al Diyar: The decision taken by the Minister of Finance in the caretaker government, Youssef Khalil Al-Qadi, to pay half of the customs duties on imported goods in cash and in Lebanese pounds was a matter of debate between various economic sectors, especially the retail sector and supermarkets, which announced that they would have to stop accepting cards Banking, if applicable.

In this regard, the head of the Syndicate of Supermarket Owners, Dr. Nabil Fahd, says that in the last contact with the Minister of Finance, he promised us that he would not start implementing the decision on 1/17/2023 to conduct further study, and for this purpose he would meet with the economic bodies to discuss the matter and find out their opinion. The Syndicate of Supermarkets in Lebanon has already issued a warning in this regard, as it sensed a lack of response to the negative consequences of the decision, which are indirect consequences for us, but for the citizen who will pay for it. The suppliers who provide us with local goods, along with the importers, have told us that if this decision enters into force, They will stop accepting checks or transfers.

And he adds: When a bill comes to us, we pay 10, 15, or 20% of it by check or transfer, and we pay the rest in cash. In this way, we have achieved a kind of balance between what goes in and out of money. This balance is very delicate, so if the supplying companies will not accept checks from the supermarket, they will have to collect all amounts from customers in cash, or put an additional fee on the payment card at a rate of 20% or more, which will increase the volume of taxes on deposits and thus increase the supply of checks at a rate higher than demand and money becomes All held in the banks.

Fahd considers that the problem of not pricing in dollars that we face in this is the Consumer Protection Law, because Article 5 of it says that pricing should be in pounds, as well as payment. We have held several meetings in this regard with the Minister of Economy and the Parliamentary Economic Committee. Everyone believes that pricing in dollars is better for people, so that we have a clear reference. At the price, which activates competition between stores and gives more ability to clearly announce prices, not as it is currently happening, as prices change whenever the dollar moves up, and this is cumbersome because commodity prices must be changed daily. We change prices on the computer with the click of a button, but changing them on the shelves is the problem, but we We say that if we put the price in dollars, this would be beneficial. We adopted this mechanism in the year 1984 until the year 1995, and we used to put the exchange rate on the screen and change it daily according to the official exchange rate, and payment is made to the fund according to the exchange rate. Today, trust is lost and accusations are constantly being made against us of price manipulation. So when we price in dollars, everything will become clear. The most important thing in the matter is that we will create real competition and customers will be able to compare prices between one store and another within a fixed price and a fixed currency.

In response to a question about how they price in light of the sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate, Fahd says: There is confusion in this matter, but 90% of our purchases are in pounds, not dollars. We follow the supplier’s pricing regulations in pounds, and the supplier is the one who prices his dollars according to what he deems appropriate, and for the record, one of the companies kept pricing the dollar until the end of the year 2022 at a price of 25,000. So pricing is done with the supplier, and he is the one who determines the price, and we take the price in pounds. As for the items that we buy in dollars, such as meat and grains, we price them according to the daily exchange rate, and we do not increase the value more than that.