(Eqtsad)- The numbers announced by the General Grain Directorate subordinate to regime about the amount of grain imported during the past 18 months (1200000 tons) catches the eye in light of the difficult economic conditions of the regime where the real import cost of this amount is 1000000$.
How was the regime able to cover the high cost of the import at a time where grain is not considered the most expensive material imported by the regime, but it is fuel.
What the director of the General Grain Directorate told close to regime newspaper revealed huge corruption and theft operations during transforming the grain from production areas in Hasaka or from Syrian ports. Under the pretext of the road, whoever was granted the bid was getting huge amount of money which surpasses the real cost of import in double.
The operation seems more complicated when calculating the import operations of the rest of imported products which the central bank covers its cost of foreign currency which in total comes up to more than 3 billion dollars.
According to data of the ministry of finance regarding the imports of last year, it revealed that imports cost more than 4.5 billion dollars whereas exports did not exceed 150 million dollars.
So where do they have this money? If we know that the international preliminary reports indicated that the remaining reserve of foreign currency at the regime exceeds half million dollars at its best.
According to informed sources, during the past three years, the regime followed a policy of turning a blind eye to the market chaos in everything including the currency market. He indicated the operation allowed the regime to play the broker role beside traders with more privilege for the regime since it has money power.
The source, which spoke on condition of anonymity, added that in 2014, the regime has withdrawn a big amount of dollars benefiting from the increasing value of dollars to Syrian pounds (over 150 SP). The operation which led at the end to pump more Syrian currency in the markets and led eventually to rise in dollars in an insane way.
The source believes that regime made billions of dollars by these operations as its agents bought dollars in neighboring countries in Syrian pounds. The aim was to secure the main state expenses in the reasonable limits which can enable them to lead its military and civil operations. This explains the fact that the regime kept paying employees’ salaries in the opposition-controlled areas and sought to compromise on opening schools and paying the cost for the schools to continue operating.
The source adds that other exit which regime used is loans from Iran which reached more than 7 billion dollars so far; most of the loans were food items, fuel and weapons.
Regarding the Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates’ deposit for the state to be 4 billion dollars at the beginning of the Syrian revolution, according to recent media reports, the source, who was still working at the bank at that time, clarified that the two states might have pumped that money into the central bank. The reason is that the bank governor was always comfortable regarding cash of foreign currency and would confirm in meetings that the bank does not have problems regarding that. However, the source disclaimed his direct knowledge regarding this deposit. (Reporting by Mohamed Ali Idlibi)
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