Generator owners: New tax is KO for sector
Electricity generator owners cannot afford to pay a new tax on their units that has been included in the 2019 budget, a spokesperson for a committee representing the owners told The Daily Star Monday.
For example, someone with a 100 kVA generator would pay a tax of LL5 million a year.
The committee represents 3,500 generator owners across Lebanon, who control about 7,000 generators.
This means that a single 500 kVA generator would see the owner make LL36 million in profits a year.
Khoury agreed that the new law might "not be very fair," given that it taxes generation capacity rather than profits. In other words, the owners will be paying a fee based on the sheer capacity of their generators, regardless of whether those generators are earning profits.
Khoury said that before his decision was enacted, the generator sector was worth about $1.5 billion a year; generator owners took away some $800 million in profits.
He projected that this year it would shrink to being worth some $1 billion, with just about $200 million in profits going to the owners.
The committee spokesperson said that the generator owners would be open to other forms of taxation, such as a direct tax on profits -- 10 percent, say.
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