Cabinet postpones decision on public sector productivity allowance

Sources from within the government reported that the Minister of Finance requested more time to study the figures related to the proposal. The cost of enacting this proposal ranges from 2 trillion to 2.4 trillion Lebanese pounds, with a significant difference between the two figures. According to sources, this difference is related to determining the daily value of the allowance and expanding the scope of the proposal to include more public sector employees.

The second and most important point that led the Minister of Finance to request more time was the need to identify funding sources for this allowance. So far, it is not clear where the revenues will come from, and the Minister of Finance expressed concern that rushing to approve the proposal could lead to inflation.

Therefore, the decision to postpone the proposal for further study was made. This reminds us of the experience of the salary scale law, which was initially estimated to cost 1.2 trillion Lebanese pounds but ended up costing the government 2.2 trillion Lebanese pounds, at the expense of all Lebanese citizens and their national work.