Drivers say greed ­ not concern for the environment ­ is behind moves to implement a ban on polluting vehicles

Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star staff

Taxi drivers threatened Tuesday to block the streets of the capital to protest a government ban on diesel-operated vehicles later this month.
“We warn the authorities not to play with fire, because we cannot bear (the burden) any longer … and we will not die in silence,” said Abdel-Amir Najda, president of the Confederation of Taxi Drivers Unions, during a news conference at the union headquarters in Wata al-Moseitebeh.
Najda’s warning comes just days before Law 341 is to be implemented on June 15. It calls for “reducing air pollution from the transport sector,” and stipulates that the import of diesel engines would be banned a year after it was passed in August, 2001.
But taxi drivers say that while they are concerned for the environment and public health, they are not willing to shoulder all the blame.
“Let us be clear that this issue is not about protecting the environment, because the cars that are being banned constitute only 15 percent of all diesel-powered vehicles,” Najda said.
The union says there are 200,000 diesel-operated vehicles in the country, excluding those used by the military and police, but only 30,000 diesel-operated taxis.
Moreover, according to the union, oil companies sell 3.2 million liters of diesel daily. Taxis, mini-vans, buses and trucks consume 700,000 liters daily. The union has questioned why the remaining 2.5 million liters are not banned.
Najda said taxi drivers would back any move that protects the environment while safeguarding their livelihoods.
“We have often suggested alternatives, such as importing diesel that meets European environmental standards or offering us tax-free gasoline,” Najda said. “We’ve told (officials) that if they offer us a tank of gasoline for LL10,000, we would all switch from diesel. But when we suggested this to (Finance Minister Fouad) Siniora, he said: ‘I would rather point a gun to my head and shoot myself.’”
The average price of a 20-liter tank of gasoline is about LL20,000, yet just LL7,000 for a 20-liter tank of diesel.
“This is not about the environment, but about bringing money to the Treasury and their own pockets,” Najda said.
He claimed the government’s excuse for not importing environmentally friendly diesel was that it cost $6 more per ton.
“But that’s a minimal extra expense,” he said.
Najda argued that since each 20-liter tank of gasoline brings the government LL13,900 in revenue while a 20-liter tank of diesel barely brings in LL1,000, when the government forces taxi drivers to switch to diesel, it will effectively be forcing drivers to pay about LL28,000 per day just to “fill its coffers.”
The LL28,000 is equivalent to government revenue from two 20-liter tanks of gasoline ­ the minimum amount of gasoline used daily by drivers.
With about 40,000 taxi drivers registered in Lebanon, Najda calculated that the government would be “making more than LL365 billion per year from taxi drivers.”
Najda also slammed the incentives the government offered in Decree 7858. It states that new gasoline-operated cars and those not more than three years old imported for use as taxi-cabs are exempt from customs tariffs and registration fees. The annual mechanique fees required for road-worthiness tests would be also waived once only.
Moreover, owners of diesel engines would be compensated with LL1 million if they hand in their engines to the Finance Ministry with proof-of-ownership documents.
But the union claims that although diesel engines had legally entered the country, they were admitted in violation of laws that banned diesel-operated cars.
“For this reason, no one (in the customs directorate) would dare issue a proof-of-ownership certificate,” said confederation Treasurer Ali Mohieddine.
The confederation will hold a general assembly Wednesday at 11am in Wata al-Moseitebeh to decide on a plan of action. It has also called on taxi drivers to descend on Thursday’s Cabinet meeting “and lay a siege with your cars on the Cabinet.”
Amal’s labor office and the union and labor unit of Hizbullah held a meeting Tuesday in which they backed taxi drivers and urged the government to assume responsibility for the “thousands of families who are in danger of losing their livelihoods.”
The confederation plans to “block the streets of Beirut and Lebanon starting on Friday or Saturday,” Najda said.

Which law to obey?

The taxi drivers’ main point of contention is that they now have to pay for the “random” decisions of past governments.
An initial law was passed in 1961 banning vehicles from operating on diesel. Another law was passed in 1994 allowing trucks and buses to use diesel engines. That was followed by another, No. 384, permitting the issuance of red license plates for taxis, and led to their numbers more than tripling ­ from 10,600 to 33,298.
Of these at least 25,000 operate on diesel, according to confederation treasurer Ali Mohieddine.
Law 384 also allowed the issuing of 7,000 red license plates for trucks and another 4,000 for vans.
As a result, drivers say the roads are too full of public-transport vehicles, with too few passengers to cover daily expenses.
“The number of existing cars would require 4 million passengers a day if each car conducted 10 rounds per day,” said Mohieddine.
The latest estimates put Lebanon’s population at just over 4 million.

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