Parliament is due to start examining the draft budget for 2024 at 3 PM on Friday. Before that, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati will respond to MPs’ comments and criticisms of a text that “lacks transparency and economic vision” and is characterized by numerous taxes.
Forty-one MPs took the floor during the two days and four sessions devoted to the budget debate. All of them criticized a document that falls far short of the expectations of the Lebanese people, who will be burdened with a series of taxes whose only purpose is to generate revenue for a state that still has no plans to launch a reform program.
Barring any surprises, the finance draft law is due to be voted on on Friday. Twenty-three MPs spoke in Parliament on Thursday, including eight during the night session.
Ali Hassan Khalil (member of Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal bloc) delivered a very long political speech focusing on the conflict with Israel and “the importance of the role of the resistance.”
He then stressed the Amal bloc’s commitment to the Taif Agreement and the national partnership. He also called for the presidential elections to be held on the basis of a national agreement.
In this context, Ali Hassan Khalil vigorously defended Berri’s position on this issue before briefly commenting on the budget. He defended the government’s draft, saying that a finance bill “should not include an economic vision, which must be prepared and presented separately.” The MP noted the absence of a number of important figures relating to the Treasury’s deficit, in particular the deficit owed to Electricité du Liban (EDL). In this context, he criticized the fact that the expenditure of the Ministry of Energy is not recorded by the Ministry of Finance.
The MP called for the drafting of a law on the restitution of bank deposits and an investigation into the spending that has squandered the Central Bank’s financial reserves. His colleague Hussein Hajj Hassan (Amal), on the other hand, spoke at length about the war in Gaza, trying to convince his colleagues that “it is in Lebanon’s interest to prevent Israel from winning the war against Hamas and forcing the Palestinians into an exodus.”
MP Ghassan Hasbani called the budget submitted a “missed opportunity,” highlighting the policies “that run counter to sound economic development and that are still being applied.” He mainly highlighted the dangers of the cash and informal economy that have developed in the wake of the financial crisis, which he said must be reformed immediately.
This draft budget will contribute to the destruction of “what is left of the legal economy,” he warned, and criticized the government’s “inability” to intervene effectively in all sectors.
He concluded by calling for the election of a president.
Taha Naji (National Accord), MP for Tripoli, spoke in generalities, questioning the “ridiculous” budgets allocated to the so-called service ministries, including health and agriculture, which were also criticized by Abdel Rahman Bizri (Independent). Bizri denounced the finance draft law as “fiscal par excellence,” pointing out that a surcharge does not necessarily mean an improvement in the services provided by the state. He cited the example of the EDL and the water boards.
His colleague Fouad Makhzoumi (Renewal) echoed much of what his colleagues before him had said about the shortcomings of the draft budget. He said it was necessary to hold accountable those who had plunged Lebanon into an unprecedented crisis, to solve the problem of bank deposits so that depositors can access their money and to restructure banks.
After an intervention by MP Ali Fayad (Hezbollah), who also spoke in generalities, Berri adjourned the session to 3 PM on Friday.
The Morning Session
On Thursday morning, 15 parliamentarians commented on the draft law. With the exception of Alain Aoun, a Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) MP and member of the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, the MPs who spoke at the podium were from the Lebanese Forces (LF), the Kataeb party and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), in addition to independent MPs. They mostly opposed the latest version of the budget, considering it unconstitutional due to the lack of account closure. They also criticized the multiple shortcomings in the text, including the absence of a unified exchange rate, the salaries of public sector employees, the fate of bank deposits and the imprecision of the figures, in addition, of course, to the absence of any short or medium-term economic vision for recovery.
