Cabinet approves electricity related treasury advances

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It cannot be sure that the financing for the restoration of the electricity sector has been launched, as what was approved by the caretaker government session in this context is nothing more than a step to prevent total darkness and the disruption of vital facilities and an experiment to know the extent of seriousness in implementing the emergency plan, especially in its part related to the collection of tariffs.

The Council of Ministers approved a treasury advance for EDL amounting to 62 million dollars to unload two ships loaded with gas oil and an advance of 54 million dollars for the maintenance of laboratories.

The Council also approved the renewal of the contract with Iraq to import fuel for EDL, with its financial gradients amounting to $427 million.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Electricity of Lebanon, Kamal Hayek, and a member of the Board of Directors, Tarek Abdallah, attended the Council of Ministers. A comprehensive explanation was given by Hayek of the electricity situation and the plan that is supposed to be implemented to secure between 8 to 10 feeding hours. The obstacles that the plan may face range from financing to collection. The plan also needs security and judicial support and a unique security mechanism in some geographic areas.

Hayek seemed unsatisfied with the Cabinet's decisions, given that it did not live up to the minimum required by the plan, $300 million. Also, the response of BDL, even to the treasury's advances that were approved, still needs to be discovered. Thus, it is impossible to be confident of the result and the date when the ships will be unloaded.

The Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, objected to the Cabinet's decisions regarding the advances of the treasury, feeling that these funds would be subject to waste as the previous ones were wasted. Hezbollah ministers registered reservations regarding the government's failure to respond to the Iranian offer related to the donation of fuel oil and the construction of electricity production plants.