Ill-conceived government initiatives with high price tags are threatening to overwhelm the country’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and doom local industry, both already battered by economic woes, business leaders warned Wednesday.
“The industrial sector is facing a deadlock with the implementation of the diesel ban,” Fadi Abboud, head of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, told reporters at a news conference at the Beirut Chamber of Commerce.
He called for a reasonable delay in implementing the ban, which went into effect for mini-bus drivers on July 15, so that its economic impact might be studied scientifically.
Abboud called July 15 a black day for industrialists, charging that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods were confiscated as they were transported by diesel-operated vehicles.
“We need to distribute our goods and the issue is not a simple matter of substituting diesel engines with gasoline.”
Industry figures show that there are around 8,000 diesel-operated vehicles that legally require an engine change.
“Insurance companies will not accept covering converted vehicles unless they carry the manufacturers’ warranty,” Abboud said, adding that “besides the financial costs, safety factors and accidents are in consideration here.”
Both the transport and finance ministries have been briefed about the matter, Abboud said, adding that the association was meeting with Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Thursday to discuss possible solutions.
For his part, Adnan Qassar, the chairman of the Beirut Chamber of Commerce, made the case for environmentally friendly diesel to solve grievances sparked by Law 341.
“In every country of the world there are cars operating on diesel, on the condition that diesel is used in the proper way … I can assure you that in practical terms, it’s less damaging than gasoline,” he said
Qassar also criticized efforts to expand the National Social Security Fund, which he said was already threadbare.
“The NSSF will be strained to the limit with the inclusion of 44,000 public transport drivers and their dependents of about 250,000,” Qassar said of the proposal to register taxi drivers with the fund.
Qassar criticized the possibility, “especially when the whole process has been carried out in a partial and biased method, and with outright violations to the law.”
Qassar, who said the NSSF was a crucial element of the national economy, condemned the shortcomings of the existing structure of the fund, saying that ill-advised decisions would harm the rights of both employers and employees.
“The proposed dental care coverage will surely wipe out the fund,” said Qassar. “And we can’t forget that restitution for 40,000 students has not been fully paid to the fund by universities,” he added.
“We want the government to take into consideration our opinion in these matters,” Qassar said. “We do not wish to impose any decisions. Consultations should be an ongoing process and not subject to the government’s whim,” he added.

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