The Lebanese Cabinet on Thursday continued its open sessions to study the 2022 state budget law, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Minister of Education and Acting Minister of Information, Abbas Halabi, said in the wake of the session that an agreement had been set to address the citizens’ dwindling incomes once the Parliament approved the state budget.
“Incomes should be addressed in away that achieves a high level of social justice to eliminate the gaps that have been caused by the current crises,” Halabi said.
“These topics were the subject of a lively and profound discussion because the government is striving to bridge the gap that has been increasing, by the day, among the different classes of the Lebanese society,” he added.
“An in-depth discussion was also held regarding the status of public administrations, and the need to ensure the continuity of their activities,” Halabi maintained.
“The need to explain the state budget's goals to the citizens was also discussed; the media noise that surrounds the budget’s project only aims at shrinking the people’s confidence in everything that the state conducts. This is certainly not in the interest of the Lebanese, especially since this noise aims at protecting some petty interests that serve a small group of citizens,” Halabi added.
In response to a question about the customs US dollar rate, Halabi said that it had been decided to leave this matter to the Minister of Finance, “who will conduct a study on this subject and decide which price will be adopted to fulfill the state's rights."
Regarding the US dollar exchange rate, Halabi said that nothing had been decided in this regard yet.
“But there is no interest in continuing to maintain pluralism in the US dollar’s exchange rate,” he added.
For his part, Energy Minister Walid Fayad said: "We’ve discussed a specific issue that concerns Lebanese citizens, especially those who consume oil for heating and running generators, such as diesel.”
Consequently, Fayad noted abuses by diesel distributors “who have been exceeding set fees and prices.”
“We request an immediate support from the Ministry of Interior, the security forces, and the judiciary to follow up and prosecute those saboteurs, take action against them, and fine them,” he added.
Addressing generator owners, Minister of Economy Amin Salam, said that some have finally begun to understand that the journey was long and that the state shall never cease to follow up on citizens’ rights.
“We might keep relying on generators for one or five years before energy is distributed for 24 hours. Generators will remain in use; either we will remain at odds with generator owners or they shall abide by our fair pricing grids,” Salam added.
It is to note that the Cabinet will resume its 9th open session tomorrow morning, during which the Minister of Finance will read his report on the draft state budget.
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