The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

In search for funding to run their controlled areas…”Tahrir Al-Sham” and the “Salvation Government” save themselves by collecting various taxes and royalties in return for their limited services

Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham imposes security in their controlled areas with an iron fist, while the “Salvation Government” works on organizing the civil affairs and arranging the management of the area concerning all aspects of life, where decisions keep pace with economic and security developments are issued.

The Salvation Government and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham are considered less desirable bodies for the humanitarian organizations and supporting countries, which makes the civil government’s task of securing the support needed for implementing developmental projects of sources and different ways, to be mainly based on the chaos of market in their areas and on their military and security influence.

And Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and the Salvation Government are searching in their small territory, for commercial control in the midst of the chaos and absence of neutral financial and supervisory authority, where it (Tahrir Al-Sham) is in control of Bab Al-Hawa crossing which is one of the most important crossings with Turkey, where all the stuffs that fill up the markets of the areas of north-west Syria are entered via this crossing, including fuel, flour and the different imported commercial goods and foodstuffs.

Also Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham dominates the fuel business, both local and imported, via “Watad” Company which operates in favor of Tahrir Al-Sham, where it sells a fuel tank in the markets about 10000 SYL higher than the cost price after taking off taxes at several checkpoints of the pro-Turkey factions, which get nearly 5000 SYL for each barrel, while “Watad” Company gets many times as much what all of these factions get, it also monopolizes kinds of trafficking practiced by Tahrir Al-Sham’s Emirs individually and against its sharia law, such as tobacco trafficking, in coordination with civil fronts.

Tahrir Al-Sham also obtains considerable income through imposing control over the property of the religious “minority” communities which abandoned Idlib, and these properties are estimated at tens of houses and shops in Idlib, Jisr Al-Shughur and whole villages return to the Christian and Alawite communities in Jisr Al-Shughur, in addition to hundreds of hectares of farm lands and fruitful trees including olive and citrus trees, where they hire them yearly, it also puts its hands over houses of the Unitarian Druze community, in addition to the property of Islamic Waqf, Tahrir Al-Sham is considered to be responsible for the service institutions which provide a form of services in coordination with the organizations in Idlib, while its role is limited to organization and management, it also imposes taxes on pharmacies, shops, weapons, restaurants, cars, motorcycles, laboratories, factories, scrap yards, garages, trucks and others, all of that is being collected in return for its limited services.