Lebanese MP Ibrahim Kanaan has called on members of the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee that he heads to discuss next Monday a decree on the 2019 budget adopted by the government this week and signed by President Michel Aoun on Wednesday.
Speaker Nabih Berri said he instructed the committee to hold more than a session per day to swiftly refer the draft to parliament for further study and final ratification.
“Parliament will do its job and exercise its role fully in studying the budget, 128 copies of which are being printed to distribute to MPs,” Berri was quoted as saying, referring to the number of lawmakers.
Aoun also signed a decree to open an extraordinary session of parliament from June 1 to October 21 to discuss the budget.
However, despite the atmosphere produced by approving the draft budget and reducing the deficit-to-GDP ratio from 11.5 to 7.59 percent, recommended at the CEDRE international conference that was held in Paris last year, observers expected differences among lawmakers.
International donors had pledged $11 billion in loans and grants at the conference. The government hopes to unlock them with the new budget that it approved on Monday after weeks of haggling.
But reports said several independent deputies and others not represented in the cabinet, in addition to the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party would object it.
“There will be a showdown in parliament over the budget’s failure to tackle corruption in the public sector,” former MP Salah Honein told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He said the budget failed to find a solution to the electricity crisis, tax evasion, properties along the coast, fake associations and others.
