Plans to Reschedule Bank Loans, Taxes Imposed on Industrial, Commercial Establishments

DAMASCUS, (ST)- The Economic Committee, chaired by the Council of Ministers, recently examined at an extraordinary meeting the formation of technical committees to consider the rescheduling of bank loans, taxes, fees and bills imposed on stumbling industrial and commercial establishments. Representatives from banks, chambers of commerce, industry, General Federations of Farmers and Artisans attended the meeting.

Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Dr. Qadri Jamil, underlined importance of formation the committees to reschedule the repayment of bank loans and operating the factories and ceased touristic installations in safe areas, reconsider the taxes, fees and the problems of craftsmen and ensure warehouses in different areas to guarantee storage of the basic needs to meet the needs of the market.

“Formation of the committees and presenting them to Cabinet for approval will be within a week to begin its work early next week. Activating agricultural and industrial production, adjusting the prices and the exchange rate is one of the priorities to deal with the consequences of the crisis on the citizen and the national economy,” Dr. Jamil noted.

“It has been communicated with the largest number of economic activities to find solutions to this crisis and to deal with the slowdown in agricultural and industrial production and the economic cycle development in general,” Dr. Jamil  pointed out.

“To reschedule loans and fees guarantees preserving the rights of the State in parallel with the help of those who are unable to repay loans, stressing the distinction between the defaults before and after the crisis, through the adoption of recommendations of the technical committees formed for this purpose,” Dr. Jamil  clarified.

For his part, the Minister of Industry, Dr. Adnan al Sekhni, confirmed the importance of activating the decrees and laws concerning loans and setting up committees to combine the ministries and departments concerned to ensure their implementation so as to contribute to help workers in the economic sector and the creation of mechanisms for the return of work and operating of facilities and providing them with necessary help in addition to postpone taxes and fees.

“Targeting the factors of the economy and its components requires the integration of work between the concerned bodies in economic affairs to ensure the return of the production cycle according to conditions and controls in line with the current circumstances,” Dr. al –Sekhni added.

 Chairman of the Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce, Mohamed Ghassan al -Qalla’, pointed out to the importance of rescheduling taxes and fees in line with the economic situation being experienced by Syria and the size of the attacks suffered by the enterprises and factories.

For his part, chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Industry, Fares al -Shihabi, called for returning the process of re -installment with less benefits and extending  the repayment period and making a partnership with the state in some stumbling economic facilities through the purchase of a ratio to help the remaining ones to continue to work. 

Mr. al – Shihabi clarified  the importance of finding alternative industrial areas, transferring  industrial installations to these areas, providing special facilities to industrialists wishing to transfer their projects and businesses to the new industrial free zones and not subjecting them  to the laws of customs, stressing that the transferring of these installations to safe areas contributes significantly to meet the needs of the market as small and medium companies form 90 percent of economic powers. 

Chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Tourism, Rami Martini, called for dealing seriously with the loss that hit the tourism sector as the biggest victim result of the crisis, pointing to the importance of rescheduling loans of the owners of tourist facilities out of work, and the formation of committees comprising of engineers and representatives from the bans and tourism to reassess tourist facilities.

Sharif al –Khatib