After holding a session on Wednesday, under the chairmanship of Lebanese President Michel Sleiman,
and in presence of Premier Najib Mikati and the ministers, the Cabinet has scheduled a session on the 31st of October to
approve the pay scale funding sources.
The Minister of Information, Walid Daouk said after the session said that funding sources are being studied, and raising the taxes on imported cars and alcoholic drinks are some of the proposals so that the series would be funded.
During the session, Sleiman hoped that the
study of the budget would be accelerated and wished that suitable mechanisms
would be adopted in the job hiring process away from electoral interests.
He also underlined that the Lebanese Army was still carrying on its mission to
control security nationwide.
A swift fresh visit of Syria's peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to Beirut also
featured in Sleiman's statement at the beginning of the session.
He noted positive signs in Brahimi's statements as to parties agreeing over the
necessity to resort to political solution to the Syrian crisis.
Both Sleiman and Mikati had met in a one-to-one, prior to a session for the
Cabinet at the Baada presidential palace.
They discussed the current general situation and most recent developments.
Mikati also informed the President of the outcomes of his fresh visit in the
capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, and the meetings he held
on the sidelines of the Francophone summit.
The results of the Prime Minister's recent visit to Qatar are also featuring
high in the pair's behind-doors talks.
For his part, Interior
and Municipalities Minister Marwan Charbel said that "there is a period of
one week, within which the situation at Roumieh prison has become unbearable
and news measures must be implemented".
Speaking to reporters
before the session started, Public Works and Transportation Minister, Ghazi Aridi,
noted that a 1.4-billion-dollar waste of Customs' taxes might be advantageous
to the funding plight.
For his part, Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi said there would be accurate
examination of the state capacities and the required amounts to finance this
scale.
However, Minister for the Displaced, Alaeddine Terro, ruled out that today's
session would settle on this issue.
The Trade Union Coordinating Body:
Shortly after postponing funding the series of ranks and salaries, the Trade Union Coordinating Body announced that
a general strike will be held on Thursday in public and private departments as well as public and private schools.
In a talk to
LBCI, Mohammad Qasim a member of the trade union coordinating body assured the general
strike and said that the pay scale has been ratified since 9 September, and
since then funding sources are not available yet.