Traders accuse Syrian government of extortion via dollar
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, traders in the city of Damascus accused Syrian government of “extortion and theft” after setting the exchange rate of the Syrian pound at 3,375 against one US dollar for imports.
On April 7, Damascus Chamber of Commerce stated on its official Facebook that exchange companies would sell foreign currencies to finance imports at the new price, according to a priority to cover food and pharmaceutical imports.
“The government’s function had blatantly shifted to extortion and theft,” Salem al-Faqih, a pseudonym for a member of Damascus Chamber of Commerce, told North Press.
“The government requires exporting traders to return the foreign currency resulting from export to the Central Bank at a price of 1,250 SYP, while it asks us to buy dollars from it at a more than doubled price,” he added.
He stated that such policies and steps come to “restrict the traders and monopolize the import and export process in the hands of a few names close to the government, where everyone knows about them.
“This step refutes the government’s claim that the rise in the price of the dollar is fake, as the price offered is very close to the black market price,” the trader noted.
“Let everyone know that it is the Syrian government that raises prices, tightens citizens, and hampers economic movement in the country, citing economic sanctions some times and the greed of traders other times.”