AMMAN — Economic
experts have cautioned against a further economic decline and higher
unemployment rates due to recently introduced electric tariffs and increased
fuel prices, although the government announced that the impact of the new
tariffs would spare 90 percent of citizens, and promised there will not be any
new taxes during 2022. However, experts believe that the government has not
stayed true to its promise, and has added new taxes, while the tariff increase
is bound to affect everyone.
اضافة اعلان
Economic expert
Yusuf Mansur sees that the negative impact of the tariff increase is
indisputable, since an increase in energy costs will affect the production and
transportation of goods, and consequently will negatively affect the economy,
leading to higher unemployment, inflation, regressive production, weakening
competitiveness and an eventual closure of many businesses.
“The claim that
this will only affect a certain group of people is naive in terms of premise
and analysis because you cannot contain inflation to one group of people,”
Mansur told
Jordan News.
He said that if
businesses were required to pay extra fees for electricity, their earnings
would decrease, and this would lead them to increase the prices of their
products to compensate for the loss, leading others to buy those products at
inflated prices, which would eventually result in a series of hikes that affect
everybody. “The economy is interconnected like the human body,” he noted.
Economic
researcher Mohammad Al-Basheer told
Jordan News that he has not been
able to observe how impactful the newly introduced tariff categories will be on
the industrial, agricultural, and commerce sectors in addition as well as on
citizens, adding that this is not a good time for “people to handle new
financial adventures, especially after in light of the pandemic.” He added that
the new tariffs would be hard on Jordanians and foreigners residing in Jordan,
as it will overburden employers, increase inflation and add economic pressures.
“That is why we
have reservations (about the tariffs) because it further intensifies the
burdens created by the pandemic, as it will show on food prices, shipping
costs, and constructions materials,” Basheer said.
Economic analyst
Mazen Irshid told
Jordan News that the government is fully aware of the
tariff’s impact but is withholding essential information. He said the
government must be completely transparent and provide a comparison of an
average electricity bill based on the old and new tariff. “We want to know the
key point, which is what the rate of the electricity tariff will be!” He added
that Jordan remains one of the most
expensive countries in the region in
relation to the power bills imposed on all types of consumers and industrial
establishments, adding that “this would thwart foreign investment, which is
already in a state of constant decline, as electricity is one piece in a
connected chain.”
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