Turkish lira blamed for hiking prices in Idlib| Absent censorship amid complaints of people
While coldness and lower temperatures are looming, Idlib markets have been experiencing hiking prices of food products, basic commodities, and essentials especially bread and natural gas which will all worsen the people existed sufferingsin the winter. Meanwhile, civilians complain about absence of censorship and greediness of merchants who manipulate the dailyprices.
Stopping a hawker to buy some vegetables, a lady known by her initials as “CH.A.”, who was deported from western Hama countryside to one of the camps in Deir Hassan region in north Idlib countryside, has complained about the dramatically hiking prices. By the end of the negotiations, she decided to give up her plans and only bought milk and bread.
In her testimony, the lady told SOHR that she has been living in a tent since was displaced along with her two sons, adding “It is extremely difficult to secure my daily needs, and I often depend on limiting the times of vegetable purchase.”
CH.A. buys vegetables twice per week and depends on the less-priced food commodities or the monthly food basket granted by the relief organizations.
According to the lady, a package of bread used to contain seven loaves, but several days ago the bread seller put 11 pieces instead of 14 ones in one plastic bag with the same prices of two bags. Reasons for those changes remain unknown.
Meanwhile, household gas is essential for the people in camp during the winter due to the difficulty of cooking on a fire, CH.A. highlighted adding the natural gas daily prices are fluctuating.
Increasing one kilogram of vegetables with half or one Turkish Lira might not impact some people, but the case is different for those who couldn’t afford their daily food, especially women who lost their breadwinner normally complain of the rising prices, she explained out adding, some of the displaced families are forced to sell their food basket sometimes to purchase their essentials.
Meanwhile, “A.KH.” a man, who was displaced from south Idlib countryside to camps in Deir Hassan region in north Idlib countryside told SOHR that the prices would not have reached that hiking levels if there is an integral censorship authority to monitor and control the markets, impose flat rates in all regions and hold the violators accountable.
But, prices for the same product differ from a village to a nearby town or even from a shop to another, the man highlighted.
CH.A. added the opposite happens; taxes are imposed on all people without considering their difficult living or financial conditions and the Salvation Government-controlled Supply Directorate that should prosecute the violatorsislenient in dealing with those exploiting the peopleneeds offood and basic commodities.
A.KH. referred also to the problem of exploiting the change of fuel prices and the freefall of the Turkish Lira by some shops’ owners who misuse those reasons as pretext to raise the prices and gain more revenues with no consideration to the people’s income.
SOHR activists have reported prices of some vegetables and basic commodities in the markets of Idlib and its countryside with Turkish currency as follows:
- One kilo of tomato: five Liras
- One kilo of eggplant: five Liras
- One kilo of sweet potato: three Liras
- One kilo of cucumber: six Liras
- One kilo of cauliflower: three Liras
- One kilo of green paper: three Liras
- One kilo of lemon: three Liras
- One kilo of pea: four Liras
- One kilo of onion: two Liras
- One kilo of lettuce: three Liras
- One kilo of garlic: six Liras
- One kilo of tomato: five Liras
- One kilo of cabbage: two Liras
- One kilo of radish: three Liras
- One kilo of mushroom: 16 Liras
Prices of subsidized commodities as follows:
- One kilo of rice: ten Liras
- One kilo of tomatomolasses: ten Liras
- Eight-liter can of butter: 115 Liras
- One kilo of lentil: 11 Liras
- One liter of vegetable oil: 18 Liras
- One kilo of bulgur: seven Liras
- One kilo of sugar: seven Liras
- One kilo of tomato: 75 Liras
Poultry, bread and fuel prices:
- One kilo of lame: 60 Liras
- One kilo of beef: 50 Liras
- One kilo of chicken legs: 15 Liras
- 23-kilo-wight gas cylinder: 122 Liras
- One bag of bread: two and half Liras
- One liter of diesel: 7.75 Liras
- One liter of gasoline: 8.29 Liras
On the other hand, value of the Turkish lira has witnessed new decline according to the latest update on Sunday, November 7: one U.S. dollar equals 9.75 Turkish liras.
“B.A.”, a shop owner in Takhareem town in north Idlib countryside, in his testimony to SOHR, attributed the hiking prices of the food and supply commodities essentially to the rising fuel costs.
Fuel is the basic product that controls prices of all kinds of materials and commodities in the markets, he said claiming that the “Watad Oil Company” that is working under Hya’atTahrir al-Sham controls the fuel prices.
The shop owner added other reasons for the food increasing prices like shortage of some kinds of vegetables in the market and importing them from Turkey with few quantities, imposing taxes on the crossings, markets and companies that are also mirrored on the prices and the population in general and the limited-income people in particular.
He stressed that there is no connection between the shops and supermarket owners with rising the prices, because they are a mere reaction to the rise of the fuel and the instability of the Turkish lire against the US dollars as well as the insufficiency of enough food commodities to meet demands of all regions of in Idlib and its countryside while the winter is looming.
It is worth noting that amid the increasing prices that exceeded the capabilities of civilians in Idlib regions and countryside, wages of employees in Turkish lira remained declining, with a daily average of 20 liras, the poor rate of the Turkish currency and the gap between workers’ income and daily expenditures that doubled their sufferings.