The Ministry of Finance in the Syrian regime’s government announced the adoption of electronic payment at all government fuel stations belonging to the Mahrukat company in all provinces, starting today, Tuesday, August 13th.
The official Tishreen newspaper reported that clients of a number of banks operating in Syria can now pay for the fuel allocated to their vehicles using bank cards issued by specific banks.
These banks include the Commercial Bank of Syria, the Real Estate Bank, the Savings Bank, Bemo Saudi Fransi Bank, Bank of Syria and Overseas, the International Bank for Trade and Finance, Arab Bank Syria, National Credit Bank, Byblos Bank Syria, Bank of Syria and the Gulf, Cham Islamic Bank, Syria International Islamic Bank, Jordan Bank Syria, Fransabank Syria, Bank al-Sharq, Qatar National Bank Syria, Al-Baraka Bank Syria, and National Microfinance Bank.
The announcements from the Syrian regime’s government about developing its electronic services are frequent, but these services often fail to perform their function completely for various reasons.
In a survey conducted by the United Nations in 2022 on e-government, Syria ranked 156th globally out of a total of 193 countries, while it ranked 131st globally in 2020, indicating a decline in the status of electronic services over the years in Syria.
While the regime government justifies its move towards electronic financial transactions by “facilitating citizens’ transactions,” Syrians object to this type of decision, considering it a hindrance to their transactions due to the lack of necessary infrastructure to implement these decisions.
Syrian citizens do not benefit from government electronic services and still rely on queues as an automatic means of organizing their access to services, including withdrawing money from ATMs or paying through their accounts in government institutions.
The culture of banking transactions in Syria is “almost absent,” due to the laws imposed by the regime government, such as a daily withdrawal limit on the one hand and the deterioration of the pound’s value on the other hand, meaning the loss of money value if kept in banks as the pound continues to depreciate.
Additionally, some electronic transactions in this context are not available due to the absence of the necessary infrastructure and software, amid daily problems faced by residents in Syria related to weak electricity and internet access.
Admitted by the government, a banking sector director told the local al-Watan newspaper (unnamed) in April 2022 about the decline in ATM services in regime areas, summarizing the reasons for this with several problems for which the government has not yet found radical solutions.