Lebanon's new electricity dollar rate: "Sayrafa plus 20 percent"

In Lebanon, a new dollar price has been added to the various other dollar prices: the electricity dollar. 

Banque du Liban (BDL) confirmed such a thing in a letter sent to Electricite Du Liban (EDL), which read the following: 

"We inform you that BDL will sell to EDL US dollars in exchange for Lebanese pounds collected and delivered to our funds at Sayrafa rate plus 20 percent."

This means that BDL will sell US dollars to EDL at a rate of 36,600 Liras per dollar, according to the current Sayrafa rate of 30,500 pounds, with a 20 percent addition.

The price of the new electricity dollar will be the base of the new billing system for Lebanon's electricity instead of calculating the bills based on the Sayrafa rate only. This means citizens will be responsible for paying current bills at a rate of 36,600 Lira to the dollars.

BDL's decision brings the electricity dollar's price close to the dollar's price trading in the black market.

It should be noted that the available information indicates that the Banque du Liban had purchased 300 million dollars from the black market to be able to supply EDL at a rate of 35,000 Liras for every dollar.

On January 17 of this year, Riad Salameh, the central bank governor, wrote to the ministry of finance to express his willingness to transfer the dollars required by EDL at Sayrafa rate.

Based on this, EDL requested last month that BDL would give it the Sayrafa rate on the first of every month so that it would issue the bills for the previous month.

Eventually, BDL provided the answer, which said that the rate that will be approved is the Sayrafa rate plus 20 percent.