Profits of fuel dealers in Yemen exceeded state revenues
English - Wednesday 17 June 2020 الساعة 03:52 pm
Newsyemen, private:
According to the World Bank data on the Yemeni economy, in 2019, Yemen exported crude oil worth nearly $ 1 billion - of which 50% goes for the costs of private oil services companies and the share of operating companies - and imported $ 3 billion of oil derivatives.
But information from the Central Bank of Yemen, Aden, indicates that the volume of public resources for the legitimate government, including oil resources, reached $ 700 million in 2019.
One of the employees of the Oil Company in Aden estimated that profits - the fuel trade mafia - in Yemen exceeded one billion dollars during the past year, expecting their profits to increase this year with the drop in global oil prices.
Merchants of oil derivatives in Yemen have come to control the economy, commercial activity, and appointments in the administrative and military apparatus of the state, at a time when the role of the state in the economy - the legitimate government - is suffering from failure, weakness, and corruption.
The Hadi government abandoned collecting the resources, and left them fragmented among the governorates under their control, and was satisfied with printing the currency to cover the salaries and allocations of its employees - the majority of whom have been abroad for years - causing the deterioration of the value of the national currency, raising inflation rates and millions of people slipping under the poverty line.
Before the year 2015, the state controlled the oil, gas and fuel trade, and provided most of the basic services to the population, and an engine for private sector activity, including the transportation and contracting sector. The oil derivative trade was one of the most important contributions of the government and public sector to the economy.
Since the government of Hadi and the Houthi militia delivered fuel trade to the private sector, the country has experienced a series of crises for successive oil derivatives during the past years, which have formed strong shocks that have severely affected the economic, social and food security and living conditions of the population.
Domestic demand for fuel is estimated at 544,000 tons per month, but it has declined over the past years due to the contraction of economic and commercial activity in the country.
Since the liberalization of the fuel market in March 2018, in the regions of Sharia, Aden Gulf Company, owned by businessman Ahmed Saleh Al-Essi - around which the rumors revolve around his partnership with the son of President Jalal Hadi - managed to acquire the oil derivatives market in the areas of Hadi’s control, and from the structures Aden Infrastructure Company.
The company, "Arab Gulf", affiliated with Hadi's advisor, monopolizes the market for oil derivatives, after eliminating all the competing merchants and their bankruptcy, through its influence and power, and refuses to pay taxes, customs and fund shares for the state with the complicity of the government.
The distribution of fuel and petroleum products is one of the main sources of revenue for the Houthi militia, which canceled fuel subsidies on July 27, 2015, a year after they turned on the state, under the pretext of dropping the price dose of fuel and easing its import restrictions.
It was reported that 21 Houthi-affiliated businessmen had a good working relationship with Jalal - President Hadi's son - as a result of obtaining fuel import permits through Hodeidah. They obtained these permits through intermediaries who brokered deals in Sanaa, which were then signed in Riyadh.
Reports confirm that the Houthi militia companies import Iranian gasoline and diesel of low quality to sell on the local market at prices that are 5 times higher than its official price, in addition to creating crises and selling them on the black market at prices 18 times greater than its official price.
