Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stressed Wednesday that the draft state budget will be presented to the cabinet’s secretariat general to increase the value of guarantee on deposits from 5 million LBP to 75 million LBP, noting that this benefits the depositors, in particulars owners of small deposits.
Hassan Khalil noted that the public sectors wages will be paid before December 25, like every year.
“The wages in general are a priority and I think they will remain guaranteed, despite real difficulties in finding the state,” he said.
In the same context, the minister spoke about “very disturbing numbers related to a decline in revenues.”
“We were expecting to make 5,000 billion Lebanese Pounds within the last three months, but saw a 40% decline instead, which caused a larger deficit than we were anticipating in the draft budget and therefore all the numbers of 2020 budget will change,” he explained.