Mahmoud Al-Sharaan-Amman
"On a stroke of embers", the family of Jordanian citizen Moataz Abu Al-Rab is waiting for the bread subsidy to be disbursed for the current year, after it was late, as it was scheduled for April 25th. At a time when Basma, the Minister of Social Development, is excluding him from the disbursements due to the lack of realization of her allocated revenues.
The Abu Al-Rab family, which consists of four children and the father and mother, are all waiting for support, to receive the feast as they dreamed of.
Abu Al-Rub says that large debts accumulated during the curfew period, which lasted about two months, so there is no work and no salary that helps him pay the family’s expenses, and the mother talks about planning for her four children, who divided the amount of support before spending it, as they were planning to buy Eid clothes, but that Exchange delay demolish their schemes.
He adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the pandemic affected his small house, which is located in the governorate of Irbid, in the north of the kingdom. .
The family crisis is not much different from the crisis of more than a million families, which includes about five million citizens who benefit from government support, according to figures from the Ministry of Social Development.
The root of the issue
The crisis dates back to the beginning of 2018, when the government of Hani Al-Mulqi lifted the subsidy on bread and set a new price ceiling for its popular items in the country, with increases of up to 100%, to provide about 78 million dinars ($ 110 million) with cash instead to the beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund. By 33 dinars ($ 46) per person, while the amount of support for the remaining beneficiaries is 27 dinars ($ 38) per person, and for a period of only three years.
The country's consumption of bread is about ten million loaves a day, while the Mulki government, which dropped the impact of popular protests in mid-2018, said that 67% of the bread produced goes to non-Jordanians, indicating that there are more than three million Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Yemenis and Iraqis between The population of 9.5 million by the end of 2015, according to the Jordanian General Statistics Department.
The Maliki government and the current government allocated 171 million dinars ($ 240.9 million) in the 2018 and 2019 budget, instead of subsidizing bread and raising sales tax on processed food commodities, under the social safety net and delivery of subsidies to those who are entitled to it, while in the 2020 budget allocated 120 million Dinars ($ 169 million).
The government has set conditions for obtaining bread subsidy that the annual income of the eligible families does not exceed 12 thousand dinars (16 thousand dollars), and for an individual whose annual income does not exceed six thousand dinars (eight thousand dollars) and that the beneficiary be Jordanian, and that the beneficiary has no more than A private or public car, and the value of property registered in the beneficiary name does not exceed 300 thousand dinars.
Government and security sector employees, civil and military retirees, and Social Security retirees and their inheritors are excluded from applying for bread subsidies.
A government surprise
The Minister of Social Development surprised Jordanians about excluding the disbursement of bread subsidies for this year, and said that "the economic circumstance imposed a new reality, as the revenues that were supposed to go to support bread were not realized, and if the amount of 120 million dinars is achieved, there will be support for bread."
She added in television statements that the government's financial priorities are paying salaries first, then international obligations, health protection, and fourth, social protection.
Isaacs came back to say that there was no decision to cancel the bread subsidy, and that the subsidy remains, but the foundations may differ, as not all people who received bread subsidy last year will receive the current general support.
Popular anger
The government move comes after the decision to halt the planned increase for government agency employees over the percentage of technical allowances and the salaries of officers and members of the armed forces and security services.
The minister's statements sparked widespread anger among all Jordanians, and their voices were raised to demand the government to disburse monetary support prior to Eid Al-Fitr, in light of the stoppage of the beneficiaries' work due to the Corona pandemic.
The number of poor people in Jordan, according to official statistics, is about 1.5 million, amid government expectations that the number will rise as a result of the Corona pandemic.
Social protection
Economist Hossam Ayesh believes that in light of the Corona pandemic, the government must seriously think about its decision, there is an escalating silent anger over the poor economic situation, and the government's duties to protect health that is not inalienable from social protection, especially for people with limited income and those without income.
Ayesh adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the government had to secure bread subsidies, through the "Himat Watan" fund, which is dedicated to supporting the poor family, and allocating special funds for the beneficiaries of bread subsidy and spending even if it was part of it.
The economist notes that the economic situation of the beneficiaries has decreased dramatically, after losing their business, and that means their purchasing power is declining, and we are coming to Eid Al-Fitr, which means that this reflects on the local trade movement and its decline, in an economic equation that is the most difficult in years.