About two weeks ago, specifically on April 24th, Engineer Youssef Qablawi, CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company, appeared on the "Al-Jumhuriya Salon" program to issue a clear warning, stating verbatim: "The Minister and I have decided that if things don't improve between now and the end of April, we will be forced to raise prices."
At the time, the statement seemed like a trial balloon, or a final warning before unleashing a wave of hardship on the Syrian public. Today, May 7th, that warning has expired, and the Syrian Petroleum Company has fulfilled its promise, thus beginning a new wave of price hikes under the overarching slogan: "No indiscriminate subsidies... but without alternatives."
The Jumping Platform: What Happened Today?
Starting today, Thursday, the Syrian Petroleum Company implemented a decision to raise the prices of petroleum products by percentages ranging between 17% and 29%, effectively undermining the "price stabilization" policy that the Syrian government had been pursuing for months.
According to the official bulletin issued today, the new prices are as follows:
- 95-octane gasoline: from $0.91 to $1.15 per liter (an increase of 26.4%).
- 90-octane gasoline: from $0.85 to $1.10 per liter (an increase of 29.4%).
- Diesel fuel: from $0.75 to $0.88 per liter (an increase of 17.3%).
- Domestic gas cylinder: from $10.50 to $12.50 (an increase of 19%).
- Industrial gas cylinder: from $16.80 to $20.00 (an increase of 19%).
The company officially justified its decision as part of "managing service sustainability and ensuring continuous supply," noting that the global price of a barrel of oil had exceeded $100, while it was selling the same barrel to its local refineries for only $60, forcing it to incur heavy losses it could no longer absorb.
The question arises: "Is the Syrian Petroleum Company a private company or a public sector company?"
This decision reveals not only a crisis of numbers and barrels, but also an identity crisis plaguing the Syrian Petroleum Company. When Qablawi stood a few weeks ago, he proudly proclaimed that he had freed the company from "bureaucratic constraints," enabling it to soar like a bird in the realm of international corporations. Today, it appears that this freedom has been used in a purely "private sector" fashion: focusing on profit and loss, without offering a comprehensive vision for social support.
The company managed the crisis as if it were a roadside gas station, raising its prices immediately with every increase in the price of a barrel. It's as if this company isn't "the largest contributor to the state treasury," as he himself stated, and as if its revenue, which funds 80% of the country's budget, doesn't impose any moral responsibility on it to find compromises. Talk of governing the country's revenue evaporated when it came to distributing the burden on the citizen, and the easiest solution was to pass the entire bill on to the end consumer.
The missing solution: Where are the smart cards for vital sectors?
Amidst this price hike, the Syrian citizen stands helpless. All cars, all professions, all segments of society buy fuel at the same price. The taxi driver, whose car is his only source of income, and the ambulance driver who transports patients in critical situations, both pay the same price as anyone driving a luxury car for leisure!
Where is the "smart card for public transportation" that protects workers, students, and employees who face daily transportation difficulties? Where is the subsidized "taxi card" that ensures the transportation sector, which directly impacts people's lives, doesn't collapse? And most importantly, where is the "hospital and ambulance card" that guarantees patients' lives won't be held hostage to the fluctuations of the global oil market?
This is not fair; this is a lack of social vision. Qablawi and his team, who boasted of attracting talent from Aramco and Chevron, should have also imported the smart subsidy systems these companies employ in their respective countries. Saudi Arabia and Qatar didn't lift subsidies haphazardly; they categorized them into fuels designated for specific groups.
The deadline has passed... and the questions begin.
Today, the four-month deadline Qablawi himself set has expired, and the company has implemented its decision. But what has happened is not merely a rise in gasoline and diesel prices; it is a true test of the nature of this new state: Will it treat its wealth like a commercial company seeking profit margins, or like a sovereign institution striving to achieve social justice in the distribution of this wealth?
While Qablawi stands proudly claiming to have halted his company's losses, Syrians stand at gas stations, asking: If this is the beginning for the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), what will happen when prices rise even further? The answer may lie in the missing smart card, which remains, for now, merely a theoretical concept in the lexicon of officials.
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