Unbridgeable gap between salaries and living conditions in Damascus
Damascus, Syria (North Press) – People and civil servants in areas held by Syrian government show resentment at the rocketing prices of the living conditions amid unbreakable collapse of the Syrian currency compared to the USD.
This, however, has overshadowed every aspect of life particularly civil servants as their monthly paid salaries do not meet their day-to-day needs.
The gap between the everyday basic needs and the expenditure needed for Syrian families has gone wide due to a series of decisions passed by the Ministry of Internal Trade of the Syrian government regarding a raise for a list of basic every day needs.
On August 6, the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection raised the prices of subsidized and un-subsidized gasoline “to compensate losses of the oil budget.”
In a new bill released on its official account of Facebook, the ministry set the price of octane gasoline 90 subsidized by the electronic card at 2.500 Syrian pounds (SYP) per liter (about $0.60).
On August 2, the ministry raised the price of the unpacked sugar to 4.200 SYP ($1) and the packed one to 4.400 SYP.
Amid this status of the affair, salaries of civil servants were not raised in 2022. As an average, civil servants serving institutions of the Syrian government receive 100.000 SYP per month. This, however, runs in few days.
Muhammad Mayhoub, 43, a civil servant from Sahnaya in Damascus said: “Every two days they raise prices as if salaries of people and civil servants go in proportion with such raises.”
Hiyam, 40, from the Zahira neighborhood of Damascus, expressed her concerns of the wide gap between the salaries she and her husband receive and the basic needs of the everyday life. They have no third resource to subsidies on.
However, the last time the Syrian government raised salaries was in December 2021 when President Bashar al-Assad, in three judicial decrees, raised salaries of civil servants, those serving in the army and pensioners with a 30% a raise that made no difference to the spending power as it went in line with a raise in almost all goods in the market, according to residents of the capital, Damascus.