The issue of private generators in Lebanon is entering an unprecedented escalatory turn as the month approaches its end. The “generator cartel” anticipated the issuance of the expected new prices with strict punitive measures, putting thousands of families before a harsh equation: submit to paying imaginary and objectionable numbers, or cut the power lines and plunge into complete darkness.
Strict warnings and an “arm-twisting” policy The tone of threats against subscribers escalated through a series of sudden field measures:
- Explicit threat of death: Generator owners in several areas sent urgent notices to citizens that the accumulated amounts must be paid immediately, threatening to withdraw the cables and cut off the feed without a negotiation period.
- Targeting objectors: The threat of darkness was not limited to those who were forcibly late to pay, but rather directly affected everyone who filed a legal objection to the unfair pricing and methods of calculating kilowatts, in a move to silence any protest voice that rejects arbitrary pricing.
The trap of zero options and lack of oversight Today, the Lebanese citizen finds himself between the jaws of pliers:
- Inability to give up: Citizens do not have the luxury of dispensing with the subscription, especially in towns and neighborhoods where state electricity is almost completely absent and where rationing hours exceed all red lines.
- Urgent demands for state intervention: The eyes of the angry street are directed towards municipalities and official regulatory authorities to intervene immediately and resolve the legal controversy over the right of generator owners to cut off electricity as a retaliatory measure, instead of referring financial disputes to the competent judicial and regulatory channels.
With record numbers of bills expected next month, the Lebanese street is heading towards an inevitable and open confrontation between the pressure of living burdens and the greed of generator pricing, in the absence of any official protection umbrella that protects citizens from electrical extortion.
