Close companies and major scandal .. Warning from the union of alcohol producers and spiritual drinks

They said in a statement: “The 2025 budget, which was not transferred to the parliamentary committees for their lesson and then to the Parliament to approve it, as the current government, despite our confidence in it and its president, seeks to approve it by decree. In the event that this is done, it will be a major scandal and crime against legitimate companies, and a certain group of merchants and consumers, for the following reasons:

First: On May 16, 2023, the Council of Ministers approved, based on Law No. 93 dated October 10, 2018, which granted the government the right to legislate in the customs field for a period of five years, the imported alcoholic fee raised about 57 times per liter compared to what it was before May 16, 2023. Despite the expiry of the validity period of this law on October 10, 2023, the government still adopts this equation to date.

Second: In the 2024 budget, the alcoholic consumption fee for local products was raised about 25 times per liter, under the pretext of the high exchange rate of the US dollar from 1,500 LL. To 89,500 LL, which has been constant for about a year.

Third: In the proposed 2025 budget, the government seeks to increase the fees by an additional 17 times compared to the previous year, without any positive reasons, knowing that the exchange rate of the dollar has remained fixed for about a year.

Fourth: With regard to the annual drawing of imported and local brands, wholesale and supermarkets, it has risen in the budget of 2024 by 28 times.

Fifth: In the proposed budget for the year 2025, the government proposes an increase of about 7 times.

Sixth: In the 2024 budget, the forty -fourth article came in the following: Articles 6 and 7 are canceled and Article 4 of the Legislative Decree No. 133 dated 20/12/1933 (spiritual drink fees) will be as follows: Article 4: Alcoholic fluid producers must declare the quantities that they produced annually ”and pay the fee stipulated in the second article of this The legislative decree and its amendments during the period of a month from the end of each year, after resolving the quantities that were exported from their production, and installed according to official export documents, under penalty of the validity of the fines that are due to delay in the permit and delay in the payment stipulated in the tax procedures law. Alcoholic fluid importers can recover the domestic consumption fee with customs duties, for the quantities that are re -exported out of Lebanon, provided that they apply for a recovery within a period of two months from the end of each year, and the competent tax department must decide on the recovery request and the amount approved in the period of a maximum period of one month from the date of the expiry of the deadline specified above, the minutes of the application of this article are determined when applying According to a decision issued by the Minister of Finance.

As for the proposed 2025 budget, this mechanism was suddenly canceled, as the producers will be asked to pay the fee when manufacturing, then wait for its recovery later upon export, which imposes huge financial burdens on the factories, especially since the recovery operations take more than a year, if they are done mainly.

Regarding the high fees imposed on tourism institutions that sell alcohol, we leave this file for the tourism and cabarets for its treatment before it is too late. ”

The statement concluded: “In the event that the 2025 budget is approved by decree in the Council of Ministers, many companies and factories will have to close, which will lead to an increase in smuggling operations, and thus adulterated products that pose a threat to the health of the Lebanese consumer will spread. Also, these measures will directly affect the tourism sector, which is considered an essential pillar of the Lebanese economy. Therefore, we go to His Excellency the President of the Republic, who is entrusted with the constitution, which the Lebanese people granted confidence, demanding immediate intervention to prevent the approval of this budget by decree, in order to preserve institutions and factories, and to protect the national economy, the tourism sector and the Lebanese consumer.