Enab Baladi – Jana al-Issa

About ten days ago, the General Directorate of Customs in Syria dissolved the customs control authority, in all its names and formations, across the country, without announcing a reformation until today.

The decision, issued on December 18, stated the cancellation of the customs control authority to be restructured in a way that serves the public interest.

All employees in the customs control authority, regardless of their job positions, were asked to deliver what they had in their possession (vehicles, weapons, computers, etc.) that had been handed over to them for the purpose of work, according to an official handover protocol, to several institutions affiliated with the customs control authority: the Port of Latakia, the Port of Tartus, the General Directorate of Customs in Damascus, and the Customs Directorate of Homs.

On December 25, the new General Director of Customs in Syria, Qutayba Ahmed Badawi, issued several separate decisions, relieving a number of customs directors at land and sea crossings and appointing replacements for them.

Corruption and bad reputation

The customs sector is one of the most prominent sectors that suffered from corruption during the previous regime, with several corruption cases amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars revealed in previous times.

However, the lack of a swift decision regarding the restructuring of the customs control authority could lead to many negative effects on trade movement or an increase in smuggling cases.

Syrian researcher in local administration and political economy at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, Ayman Dasuki, stated that the Damascus caretaker government is working on restructuring the Syrian customs due to the corruption, inefficiency, and bad reputation associated with it, as it is one of the strongholds of the remnants of the previous regime. This explains the appointment of many figures in customs and the removal of others, as well as the merging of some departments.

Trade through land and sea crossings does not seem to have been affected by these changes, as commercial activity is active, with an increase in the number of ships arriving at the Port of Latakia, for instance, following the fall of al-Assad, according to Dasuki’s statements to Enab Baladi.

Cancellation of fees threatens state treasury

In his first media statement following his appointment, the Director of the General Directorate of Customs in Syria, Qutayba Ahmed Badawi, confirmed that the directorate suffers from a poor administrative and technical situation due to corruption, favoritism, and administrative inefficiency ingrained within it, as well as the dire conditions of the directorate during the past regime, which reflected negatively on the rights of the public treasury, citizens, and traders.

Badawi stated in an interview with the official Syrian news agency (SANA) that there is currently work on creating an administrative and technical structure for the directorate and its branches to achieve public interest first and the interests of citizens second through facilitating administrative procedures required to accomplish customs and administrative transactions.

Badawi pointed out that he has issued several internal circulars to crossings and ports that cancel more than ten additional fees, which were the main reason for rising commodity prices in local markets. He also canceled the “Damima” fee and the tariff book, which was one of the most harmful financial procedures to the national economy, as its impact directly affected the import movement, leading to significant increases in local market prices.

The general director of customs clarified that the directorate is about to liberate the import movement from all constraints imposed on it, allowing traders to import all goods and materials that are not forbidden by their legal and legitimate nature. He also indicated that a single customs tariff in Syria would be issued, which would achieve the public interest in the state’s economic and social development and protect the rights of traders, industrialists, and farmers from competition with foreign goods. This would be done through the application of customs protection policies for local industries and products, according to his statement.

Ayman Dasuki, a political economy researcher, regarded that the significant corruption within the customs sector and the new administration’s intention to restructure it does not prevent the presence of irrational practices at the crossings due to restructuring and the significant transformations resulting from Assad’s downfall, as well as potential loss of resources for the state treasury with the cancellation of many fees.

Dasuki mentioned that it can be understood that the removal of many fees encourages the import movement to secure the local market’s needs from goods. Still, in the long run, it contributes to a loss of state budget resources on one hand and hinders the growth of local production, especially for locally produced goods, on the other.

The researcher believes that first, the customs structure should be reconsidered as part of a general framework for restructuring state institutions to reactivate them and enable them to fulfill their roles effectively and efficiently. Additionally, employees should be reexamined based on standards of efficiency and corruption, and their connection to violations, as well as reevaluating the fees and linking that to the new economic policy for Syria, aligning it with the early recovery and reconstruction phase.

The Port of Latakia on the Syrian coast regains its activity days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad – December 24, 2024 (Enab Baladi/Dayan Junpaz)

Ambiguity and conflict

In an opinion article published by economic affairs journalist Iyad al-Jafari, he stated that Qutayba Ahmed Badawi is one of the names that Syrians should pay close attention to.

Al-Jafari added, “Amid the busy political scene and its complexities, the narrow circle surrounding the previous version of Ahmed al-Sharaa (Al-Jolani) is advancing to grasp the economic reins across Syria. (Al-Mughira al-Binnishi), as he was known during the al-Sharaa era in Idlib, was back then one of the top officials in the economic file and border crossings in that opposition enclave. He has now become the General Director of Syrian Customs.”

Al-Jafari criticized the ambiguity in the new administration’s plans and the confusion in its perceptions through several examples he mentioned, including Badawi’s contradictory statements.

The economic journalist confirmed that the customs control authority, which was ordered to be dissolved, is not regretted by the vast majority of Syrians, as it had become a mafia specialized in extorting Syrians, not serving their public interest, a point of consensus. However, in his opinion, the problem lies in the implications and contradictions overflowing in the new customs director’s statements.

He spoke about the cancellation of several customs fees to ease costs on importers, which used to be added to the final sale prices for consumers, as well as the liberation of the import of goods from all constraints for all legally and legitimately non-prohibited materials.

Al-Jafari believes that the reference to the “legitimate” nature of imports overflows with implications of “official Islamization,” raising concerns among a large segment of Syrians. However, the most dangerous issue is the contradiction between the mention of “liberating imports from all constraints,” alongside the simultaneous indication in the same statements of the intention to issue a customs tariff that preserves the rights of traders, industrialists, and farmers against competition from foreign goods, through the application of customs protection policies for local industries and products.

He asserted that the state of ambiguity and confusion is exacerbating around the vision of those holding power in Syria today, extending to the field of economics, stemming from the political realm itself, according to his expression.

What is the General Customs Directorate?

The General Customs Directorate in Syria was established on March 11, 1950, under Legislative Decree No. “71,” and it is affiliated with the Ministry of Finance, headed by the General Director of Customs.

Article four of this decree granted the General Customs Directorate the right to prepare and issue texts related to customs systems and tariffs through a decree issued by the Council of Ministers.

Among the most prominent tasks of the directorate are: monitoring border crossings, collecting customs taxes and duties, and combating smuggling.

Before Qutayba Ahmed Badawi, the newly appointed director, Majed Omran held the position of General Director of the Directorate since May 2021, shortly after the dismissal of his predecessor Fawaz Assad Assad from his position.

At the beginning of May of the same year, the previous regime’s government dismissed the General Director of the General Customs Directorate, Fawaz Assad Assad, from his position without officially clarifying the reasons, shortly after he had assumed the position.

The local Al-Watan newspaper accused Assad at that time of failing to combat corruption and being unable to control smuggling, as his dismissal came days after Saudi authorities announced the seizure of a drug shipment originating from Syria.

The newspaper attributed the reasons for the dismissal, according to unnamed sources, to Assad’s failure to control smuggling and lack of success in his measures to “dry up its sources,” which harmed the markets and their movement, in addition to his failure to control the work of customs brokers or dismantle corrupt groups within the customs sector.

The customs in Syria is known for the influence of many officers and personalities close to the ousted president Bashar al-Assad, who control official and unofficial crossings, resembling a system of partitioning among themselves.