Mikati verbally promises payments to Primesouth

The caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, verbally promised PrimeSouth company that it would receive $7 million every month, even from his funds, from its dues amounting to $84 million. Based on this promise, the company resumed the operation of the Deir Ammar and Al-Zahrani plants.

This promise was made during a meeting at the grand serail, which included Mikati, Finance Minister Youssef Khalil, Banque du Liban's Acting Governor Wassim Mansouri, and Mikati's advisor, Nicolas Nahas.

However, a BDL source denied that these funds would be paid from mandatory employment. It said, "We will not pay a single dollar to Primesouth or anyone else from this reserve. The state must pay from its accounts or from what remains of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR)."

Mikati's promise did not resolve the issue between the Ministry of Energy, Electricité du Liban, on the one hand, and BDL, on the other.

Moreover, the Central Bank of Lebanon is supposed to convert Lebanese liras, which have been collected by EDL, into dollars according to the mechanism approved by the Council of Ministers during the tenure of the former BDL governor, Riad Salameh, based on a BDL proposal approved by the Finance Minister.

However, the Energy Ministry and EDL have no problem with BDL converting the lira into dollars at the appropriate rate. Previously, it had adopted a rate of LBP 104,000 to the dollar to purchase $24 million for EDL.

On the other hand, a source from the Central Bank emphasized that it is not their responsibility to convert liras into dollars.

The same source indicated that the government should determine the priorities of dollar payments by the Central Bank. There are tens of millions of dollars annually to purchase fuel for the army, medical care for security forces, and between $70 to $75 million to cover public sector salaries. Paying these salaries in lira, which is almost 8 trillion, would lead to a rush to buy the dollar. Additionally, the Central Bank still provides support for medicines for chronic diseases.

Furthermore, the source stated, "If they want to prioritize payments for electricity, let them tell us. But we will never abandon the current stability in the exchange rate and will never touch the reserves."