Cabinet to approve financial increases for military personnel and public sector employees

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Three financial increase items are scheduled to be approved at the next Cabinet meeting on Monday. These include a draft decree aimed at modifying the monthly transportation allowance for military personnel in the army, Internal Security Forces, General Security, State Security, Customs, and Parliament Police.

Currently, the monthly transportation allowance for each military personnel is 1,800,000 LBP. After Monday's meeting, it will be raised to 3 million LBP.

The second item is a draft decree that specifies the daily transportation allowance for public sector employees. The allowance will be increased from 200,000 LBP to the equivalent of eight liters of 95-octane gasoline, based on the average monthly price of gasoline set by the Ministry of Energy. For example, if the price of gasoline is 1,473,000 LBP per can, the daily transportation allowance for each employee will be 368,000 LBP or 1,473,000 LBP per week for four days of work. If the employee attends work for 18 days a month, he will receive a transportation allowance worth 6,624,000 LBP.

The third item is a draft decree that gives a daily productivity allowance to employees of public administrations and the State Employees' Cooperative. According to reports, Prime Minister Najib Mikati rejects the idea of limiting this allowance to administrative and cooperative employees only. He insists that anyone who receives a salary or allowances from public funds should benefit from it, including public institutions, the Lebanese University, the Social Security Fund, government hospitals, municipalities, and their unions.

This daily allowance should not exceed 700,000 LBP or be less than 250,000 LBP, and those who benefit from it should attend their workplace four days a week. The proposed increase for the first category of employees is 700,000 LBP, the second is 600,000 LBP, the third is 500,000 LBP, the fourth is 400,000 LBP, and the fifth is 300,000 LBP.

For example, an employee in the third category attending his workplace 18 days a month will receive an additional 9,000,000 LBP per year. The Prime Minister has stated that this increase will not burden the treasury since it is included in the public sector's operating budget.