BEIRUT: Energy and Water Minister Gibran Bassil Tuesday stressed that owners of private generators should slash the subscription fees they collect from citizens after the government removed the value added tax from the red gas oil which runs these units.

Speaking at a press conference with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Economy and Trade Minister Nicolas Nahhas, Bassil said all concerned ministries would work around the clock to ensure that all owners of private generators fully comply with unified rates.

“The profits generated by owners of the private generators sometimes reach 30 percent,” the minister explained, adding that the current rates charged by these owners are unacceptable, reminding the operators that they are illegally connecting the cables on Electricite du Liban’s power lines.

Most Lebanese depend on private generators to make up for the severe electricity rationing applied by EDL, which ranges between eight to 12 hours a day and in the summer season it reaches 16 hours in some regions.

Bassil estimated that the private generators have become so lucrative to an extent that the income from this illegal business reached $1.7 billion in 2010.

“When the price of each 20 liters red gas and fuel oil was LL30,100, the price charged for each hour supplied to subscribers with 5 amperes was LL425. But today and with the drop in the prices of red gasoil to LL27,100, the price for each hour of supply provided by the private generator should not exceed LL390,” the minister said.

He added that Lebanese citizens pay each year $1.7 billion to private generator owners.

Some municipalities in Lebanon succeeded in setting a fixed price for the private generators and forced the owners of these units to abide by all the regulations set by the authorities.

However, most private generators’ owners have always set the prices they wanted without any intervention from the authorities.

The subscription for 5 amperes during severe electricity rationing sometimes exceed $80 per month and this, according to many citizens, are higher that the bills charged by EDL.

Citizens feel that the private generators owners have become a powerful empire that can challenge the authority but they admit at the same time that the failure of the successive governments to rehabilitate the power plants have encouraged the operators of these units to fix any price they want.

For his part, Charbel said he had instructed all municipalities to compel the owners of private generators to install meters on the generators.

“These generators will be sealed by the Economy Ministry which in turn will send monitors to ensure that the owners of these units are fully complying with the instructions of municipalities,” Charbel said.

The minister also plans to conduct a comprehensive survey to determine the number of all private generators that operate in Lebanon.

“Any private generator owner who refuses to comply with the government directives will receive a penalty,” Charbel stressed.

He added that if the offender repeats his violation the government will put him out of business.

There is no clear statistics on the exact number of private generators but observers say that the number is in the thousands.