Starting next week, the crisis of stamp shortages is expected to be resolved. From late this month until the end of the year, the Ministry of Finance will gradually release 33 million official stamps for transactions. However, this step, if not accompanied by strict measures to control the monopoly on stamps and their sale in the growing black market, will remain merely a temporary alleviation amid a broader crisis within public administrations, reflecting the financial and economic collapse and the inability of state institutions to provide basic services.
Based on an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Lebanese Army Printing House, the Ministry's treasury will receive 10 million stamps of the 1,000 lira denomination by mid-next week. A few days later, it will receive 5 million stamps of the 5,000 lira denomination. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Finance is preparing, according to Treasury Director Iskandar Hallak, the necessary procedures to print 18 million stamps of the 10, 20, and 50 thousand lira denominations, which will take five weeks to complete. This means that the "finance" sector will release about 33 million stamps within a little over a month.
At the beginning of the year, according to Hallak, the Ministry is expected to prepare a tender to invite bids from companies interested in producing stamps for the Ministry. Once one of them is contracted, work with the Army Printing House will automatically cease.
Cooperation with the army was originally established through a mutual agreement in 2020, aimed at managing the Ministry’s affairs regarding securing 100 million stamps sufficient for the market for two years, based on studies indicating that the annual need is estimated at 50 million stamps. This came after the contracted company ceased operations, as the printing costs exceeded the stamp price, and it proposed adjusting costs to align with the decline in the lira's value. Following negotiations that did not reach an agreement, the Court of Audit reconsidered the costs and decided to contract the printing to the Army Printing House due to its reasonable pricing and the capabilities of the Ministry of Finance.
In the market, opportunistic traders exploited the halt in printing by introducing stamps into the black market. In early 2021 and 2022, large quantities of stamps were withdrawn by 672 license holders authorized to purchase stamps from the Ministry, some of whom, with strong connections, obtained substantial amounts, while others found in stamp trading a way to liquidate their funds. They purchased significant quantities from the Ministry through bank checks and collected their payment in cash from the market. This resulted in a continued shortage of stamps, varying in degree from one area to another, with the price of stamps in some regions reaching 100,000 lira.
