Amman

- For the third month in a row, the prices of oil derivatives in Jordan have witnessed a cumulative increase of 14% since the beginning of the year, affected by the rise in global oil prices and the crisis of the Russian war on Ukraine.

In response to the Jordanian authorities' decision to increase the prices of oil derivatives for the current month, activists on social media platforms launched campaigns to boycott these derivatives, launching several hashtags, most notably #Saffha_Watfaha and #Boycott_fuel_ is a national_duty, amid great interaction from the pioneers of these platforms.

To confront the successive rises in fuel, Jordanian activists called for several protest steps, most notably Jordanians stopping their cars at the end of the week, not mobilizing fuel, reducing car movement during weekdays, and moving collectively and through public transportation.

Political parties and professional unions are organizing a sit-in protest against the new prices this evening, Sunday, in front of the Syndicate Complex in Amman, and a rejection march after the next Friday prayer in the downtown area of ​​Amman.

During the first half of this year, gasoline prices of both types were stable from the beginning of February until the end of last April, while they were adjusted for the past and current months.

The prices of diesel and gas have been stable from November 2021 until the end of April 2022, and they have been adjusted during the past and current months, despite their global increase at rates of more than 40%.

The government is paving the way to raise the prices of bread, and the increase may be twice the price per kilo, and that is why Jordanians must respond to boycott campaigns that bring benefit to the citizen.

— Alaa Malkawi (@AlaaMal28542148) June 4, 2022

Gasoline bill

Between boycott campaigns, sit-ins, and marches, Fathi Qtaishat, a sixty, stands bewildered in front of the "service" taxi that he works on to transport passengers in the Jabal Al-Hussein area in central Amman. The recent rise in gasoline prices has increased his monthly bill by about 100 dinars (140 dollars).

Qteishat - according to his interview with Al Jazeera Net - works 12 hours a day to secure the livelihood of his family and rent the house, and he earns about 10 dinars ($14) at the end of the day, but the increase in gasoline prices prompted him to increase working hours to secure the difference in increasing gasoline prices.

The complaint is shared by the fiftieth driver Ibrahim Abu Youssef, "Petrol prices have risen 3 times since the beginning of the year without any increase in public transport wages, which drains our work. Net, adding that the costs of car licensing, spare parts, repairs and oils also increased with gasoline.

Despite the suffering of the drivers Qtaishat and Abu Youssef, they are better off than the fifty-year-old taxi driver Ali Al-Khatahtbeh. His monthly bill increased after the increase in gasoline prices, about 200 dinars (280 dollars), he tells Al Jazeera Net, continuing, "I am required daily 50 dinars (70 dollars) as a guarantee for the owner. Taxi and petrol, so I have to work 15 hours a day, to return to my family for 10 dinars ($14).

He called on his country's authorities to adjust public transport fares in line with the rise in fuel prices.

The transportation sector consumes about 50% of the oil derivatives that Jordan imports, and the value of the Kingdom’s imports of oil annually is estimated at 2.3 billion dinars (3.2 billion dollars) annually. During the first quarter of this year, Jordan’s imports of crude oil and its derivatives recorded 761 million dinars (one billion dinars). dollar).

tax hurdle

The rise in fuel prices in Jordan is paid by the special tax rates levied on various oil derivatives, according to energy experts and specialists, after the Cabinet approved an amended tax system that includes the imposition of a special tax on fuels.

Economic analyst Hossam Ayesh believes that the cut tax on oil derivatives is an obstacle to the decline in fuel prices in Jordan, even if the price of a barrel of oil globally is zero.

Ayesh explained - in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that the damage from the rise in oil derivatives includes consumers and various industrial and agricultural economic sectors, transportation, services and others, which prompts citizens to carry out campaigns to boycott fuels to confront these rises.

He called on his country's authorities to reduce the flat tax rates to relieve consumers and reduce the energy bill for economic sectors.

The transportation sector consumes about 50% of the oil derivatives imported by Jordan (Al-Jazeera)

consumer protection

The authorities attributed the reason for fixing the value of the tax imposed on hydrocarbons to protecting consumers from the impact of the increase in the value of taxes on the local price structure when international oil prices rise, and to stabilize government revenues from those taxes.

The value of the special tax was distributed on the types of oil derivatives, as a 20-liter can of gasoline for octane 98 was taxed at 14 dinars (19 dollars), and for a can of octane 95 gasoline, the value of the cut tax was 11.5 dinars (16 dollars), and the tax value was recorded on a plate Gasoline octane 90 is 7.4 dinars ($10), and a tax on diesel and kerosene is 6.6 dinars ($9) on the plate.

Tax revenues from oil derivatives during 2019 amounted to about one billion and 250 million dinars ($1.76 billion) annually, and they form part of the state budget, and are fully supplied to the public treasury to cover government expenditures on salaries, retirement, government support, government departments’ expenditures, education, health, and others.

first place

The oil and energy expert, Amer Al-Shobaki, expects campaigns to boycott oil derivatives, but at rates between 5% and 10%, due to the necessary need for fuel for the consumer and the various economic sectors, as it is not a luxury commodity.

Al-Shobaki added to Al-Jazeera Net that fuel prices placed Jordan first in the Arab world, and fourth globally in comparison with the annual per capita income, expecting the continued rise of oil derivatives for the coming months with oil prices remaining above $100 per barrel, and the Jordanian government's intention to gradually reverse global prices on local prices, and its insistence on High fixed taxes.