I was listening to the radio on my way to work today when I heard that the internal security forces issued a total of 5,000 tickets after 24 hours of activating the speeding radars.
Given that each ticket costs 50,000 L.L, a quick calculation shows that we now owe the Lebanese government a total of 250,000,000 L.L (~$166,000) in just one day! And at this rate, the government will be generating $5,000,000 a month from these radars!
Assuming that the cost of the radars + installing them is $10,000,000, it will take 2 months to cover this amount and start generating profit! Now that’s a business I wish I can invest in!
Still, I have some question marks about collecting these fines from violators. In a country like Lebanon where people can drive a car with defected number plates on their cars and still get away with it when going through the yearly car inspection, how will the police identify the car number in such case? And what about all these foreign cars with Khaliji number plates? Is there some mechanism to force their owners to pay the fines before leaving Lebanon?