Royalty disputes between Assad family threaten to stagnate Syrian markets

As a result of the ongoing disputes between the Fourth Division, led by Maher, Bashar al-Assad’s brother, and the secret office under the supervision of Asma al-Assad over the division of royalties and taxes imposed on products and raw materials, many materials were lost in the markets of the Syrian economic capital, Aleppo.

According to employees of the Industry Chamber in Aleppo, the sector most affected by these disputes is the ready-made clothing industry, due to the delay in the arrival of shipments of fabrics and threads, especially since the period extending between Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha is the season for the clothing industry.

Traders in this section of the industry resort to evading providing border crossings with information about the goods and other things, by paying bribes to members of the Fourth Division, who have wide influence to bring the goods in without obstruction.

According to the Traders, they resort to this as a result of sending copies of this information to the financial monitoring department of the secret office, which is specialized in searching for the incomes of merchants who own companies, factories, gas stations, etc., and secretly searches for the amount of money they have; It is managed by Colonel Ali Shalish.

The "Secret Office" consists of a small council led by Asma al-Assad from within the presidential palace, which undertakes the task of dominating and controlling Syria's economy, empowering its influence, and securing funding for the operations of the ruling regime in the country.

As a result of members of the Fourth Division receiving bribes at the border crossings, the secret office remains without information and thus the problem creates a shortage in the imposed tax revenues, which is the main point of disagreement between the two parties, which led to the intervention of the Republican Palace and the closure of the border crossings to raw materials for some time.

One of the Traders working in the clothing industry in Aleppo, who preferred to remain unknown for fear of being kidnapped by Damascus government agencies, told ANHA agency that the Fourth Division charges an amount of between 15,000-20,000 US dollars for the entry of just one fabric container.

He confirmed that the Traders pay this amount to protect themselves from the blackmail of the secret office and its "imaginary" taxes.

While the bribes paid are added to the list of costs incurred by the product, the prices of the clothes produced rise significantly in the markets, in parallel with the weak purchasing power of Syrian citizens, about 90% of whom fall below the poverty line.

Sh-S

ANHA