What are the main items of the 2012 draft budget?

Expect for the stamp fees’ increase from 100 LBP to 500 LBP and the rise of the custom tax on cars priced over $35,000, the 2012 budget includes no additional fees. This positive aspect is faced with many negative ones, but the real blow was dealt to public servants who are desperately waiting for the ranks and salaries scale.         

Instead of providing solutions to the country’s mounting financial problems, the budget acquitted the government’s debts, leaving room for only a handful of projects that benefit citizens directly.         

In this regard, State Minister Marwan Kheireddine told LBCI that after ratifying the budget, the government can now spend legally and provide citizens with the best services. Kheireddine added that if the ranks and salaries scale was discussed within the budget, it would have delayed its issuance, which does not serve the country’s interest.        

Kheireddine said that the advance payment granted to the Ministry of Finance allows the government to spend; “therefore it will not have to wait for the budget’s ratification by the Parliament to begin spending”, he said.     

For his part, economist Adnan el-Hajj told LBCI that the budget was approved in a record time in terms of the number of cabinet sessions.         

El-Hajj said that in virtue of a draft law, the government got the funding of additional expenditures for the year 2012, approved by the Parliament.        

5 ministers out 30 actually participated in the talks over the budget that was presented to ministers in the form wanted by PM Najib Mikati, not Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi.  

Even though the budget’s approval is a positive sign for both domestically and internationally, its content does not restore the private sector’s trust in the Lebanese state, adversely affecting the participation of this sector in the funding of government projects.