Hariri: Budget needs unprecedented austerity measures

BEIRUT: Parliament convened Wednesday for a legislative session chaired by Speaker Nabih Berri, setting aside the 18-item agenda to first discuss concerns over the yet-to-be-passed 2019 state budget.Prime Minister Saad Hariri told lawmakers the government needs an austere budget unlike anything that has been implemented “in the history of Lebanon.”

Berri told Hariri he hoped the premier would speed up the passage of the budget.

And after politicians – most notably Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil – last weekend suggested cutting state workers’ wages and end-of-service benefits as an austerity measure, Hariri said this was “just media talk” and vowed that the government was working to protect those with a limited income.

“We are with the retired [employees] and the [public] administration, but we also need to protect the [Lebanese] pound,” Hariri said.

Both Hariri and Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil have stated that the budget would include austerity measures and reductions in spending in a bid to slash the budget deficit, which stood at $7.6 billion last year.

Bassil said last weekend that “if we don’t reduce [salaries], there will be no salaries, no economy and no [Lebanese] pound. … State employees must accept that they cannot continue in this manner.”

Bassil’s comments sparked backlash from retired military personnel as well as civil servants – both active and retired – who called for protests across the country to prevent any attempt by the government to reduce their end-of-service benefits.

While the Parliament session was underway, public sector workers gathered nearby in Riad al-Solh Square and a number of public institutions across the country observed a strike to protest against the implementation of such a measure.

At the start of the session, the lawmakers stood for a minute of silence in remembrance of the Qana massacre. The massacre, which occurred during the 1996 April War with Israel, left at least 154 civilians dead, including more than 100 people taking shelter at a United Nations facility in the southern village of Qana.

After the moment of silence, Berri said that there were 43 laws on the books that have not yet been implemented, according to local media reports.

The main item on Parliament’s 18-item agenda are amendments necessary to start implementing the new electricity plan, after they were approved by a parliamentary committee a day ago. The committee’s discussion centered on the extension of Law 288 of 2014, which would empower Cabinet to grant temporary permits and licenses to produce electricity upon the proposal of the energy and finance ministers.

MP Paula Yacoubian told The Daily Star as she headed to the session that she would oppose the law, as she said it seeks to go around the authority of the Central Inspection Bureau’s Tenders Department.

The wider electricity plan, which Cabinet unanimously endorsed last week, is designed to restructure the dysfunctional sector, improve power supply and cut subsidies to EDL, estimated at $2 billion annually.

The 17 other items on Parliament’s agenda include bills dealing with natural reserves, protocols with the European Union, issues related to biological diversity and draft laws for building a natural forest reserve in Beirut and special economic zones in the Tyre district in the south and the Batroun district in the north.

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