The race to find the means to provide funds for Electricite du Liban (EDL) to purchase fuel and diesel and reduce power rationing has almost reached an end.
President Emile Lahoud chaired a meeting Friday with Finance Minister Fouad Siniora, Energy and Water Minister Ayoub Humayed, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, EDL chairman and director-general Kamal Hayek, and the presidency’s director-general, Brigadier Salem Bou Daher.
The meeting resulted in adopting Article 91 of the Money and Credit Law, which allows the Finance Ministry to directly borrow from the Central Bank and channel the loan to EDL, a decision that only required Cabinet agreement.
The Arab Monetary Fund will also provide a supplementary loan of $25 million that would be officially signed after EDL pledged to settle LL2 billion per month to restore the loan.
Sources familiar with the issue asserted that commercial banks could not finance EDL as long as the state-run institution suffered from such a harsh financial situation.
“Banks need a guarantee,” they said, adding that radical solutions were indispensable.
Daher urged the chairman of Parliament’s Administrative and Justice Committee, Mikhael Daher, to endorse an emergency Treasury loan for the purchase of fuel.
In an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station, Daher stressed the importance of continuous meetings and the presence of the executive power,
which is supposed to find the solutions.
“The executive power should assume its responsibilities and not neglect citizens this way,” Daher said.
He proposed three legal options in the electricity case, the first consisting of the government borrowing funds from the Central Bank, the second being EDL’s borrowing from commercial banks in exchange for motivation provided by the Central Bank and the third consisting of Parliament’s endorsing of a special law allowing EDL to borrow the necessary funds.
Former Premier Salim Hoss denounced the EDL scandal, which was marked by Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s absence.
“This neglect of the people’s interests is unbelievable,” Hoss exclaimed, adding that citizens were aware the scandal was caused by neglect, squandering and embezzlement, and do not believe any of those responsible for it will be called to account.
Hoss stressed reforms should start with the political system where corruption prevailed.
The president of the Popular Nasserite Organization, Osama Saad, urged the judiciary to prosecute the culprits fairly and Parliament to defend the people’s rights.
“A government that imposes the highest electricity costs but fails to serve the people and hinders their living is a government that should resign,” Saad said.
Former Communist Party secretary-general George Hawi proposed that the funds be treated as a personal loan with “reasonable” interest rates instead of depositing billions of dollars in foreign banks.
Commenting on the legitimacy of EDL’s financing, Economy Minister Marwan Hamade told the LBCI television station during an interview Friday that EDL’s crisis cannot be settled with additional loans. Hamade said the prosecution of some employees or importers or violators was not enough.
“A radical solution is indispensable to provide citizens with a 24-hour electricity supply at affordable prices,” he added.
Hamade stressed the importance of providing the necessary loans legally and sparing the country blackouts.
Meanwhile, a tanker laden with 18,000 tons of diesel unloaded its shipment at the Zahrani power plant at 9pm, after one and a half days awaiting authorization to unload.
Sources said the reason behind the delay was the shortage of public money.
They added that a noticeable improvement in power supplies was recorded over the past 24 hours. Electricity is now supplied for six hours then interrupted for another six consecutively in some of the Sidon and Zahrani areas, while others still experience four hours of electricity and six hours of cuts.
Meanwhile, private electricity generator owners in the area increased subscription fees by LL5,000 on top of their initial fees ranging between LL15,000 and LL25,000.