Concerns over the economy increased in Damascus as the result of the dispute between the government and businessman Rami Makhlouf.
The latter warned of an “economic meltdown” in the event that his company, Syriatel, collapsed.
The government’s Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority had informed two of Makhlouf’s companies, Syriatel and MTN mobile phone, to pay about 234 billion Syrian pounds to the state treasury as a penalty, after failing to meet a deadline to pay hundreds of millions in dues.
The businessman, who for decades had the country’s most prominent economic pillars, is facing a series of measures that would affect his shares in the state-owned Syrian Telecom Company (Syriatel), the country’s biggest mobile phone company.
Makhlouf published on Facebook on May 10 a letter from Syriatel to the government saying the company was ready to pay immediately “a first instalment to be determined on the basis of the liquidity available to the company.” He also criticized the Telecommunications and Regulatory Authority for posting a statement that contradicts his letter.
In response, the Authority issued a document on May 16, signed by five managers of Syriatel Mobile Telecom, in which they declared their approval of the Authority’s requests, but noted that Makhlouf had refused to give them the green light to proceed with the agreement.
Syria’s security bodies had launched a campaign of arrests earlier this month targeting dozens of employees of companies affiliated with Makhlouf, and stormed his house in Yaafur.
In a video on social media, the businessman implored his cousin, President Bashar Assad, to “intervene and put an end to the security services’ operations” and the release of his employees and managers.
Amid the dispute, anxiety mounted in the Syrian street over an economic deterioration, in parallel with the strict health measures imposed by the government over the coronavirus outbreak, which have compounded unemployment and poverty.
