Kanaan: Wage Scale Funding Incorporated in Budget

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Head of the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan said on Friday that the cabinet has recorded “serious and positive” progress as for introducing reforms to the draft state budget, pointing out that revenues to fund the wage scale will be incorporated in the budget.

“Serious and positive progress was recorded at the level of introducing needed reforms to the budget, which was the focus of a lengthy debate in the finance committee,” Kanaan told VDL (100.5) radio.

“There is a (positive) response from the side of the Minister of Finance (Ali Hassan Khalil) and other concerned parties. We expect the implementation to begin next week,” added Kanaan.

On Thursday Prime Minister Saad Hariri presided over a cabinet meeting dedicated to discussing the draft state budget after which Khalil announced that “very big progress” has been made towards approving the budget.

Lebanon has not approved a state budget since 2005 because of disputes between the rival political parties.

Touching on the long-stalled wage scale file, Kanaan said: “Approving the scale will be continued at the parliament. The monetary resources will be incorporated in the budget after the amount was originally allocated in the reserves.”

The Syndicate Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, has been pushing for the approval of the new wage scale for several years now and has organized numerous street protests and strikes to this end.

In a recent stance, the SCC has rejected the possible separation of the wage scale from the state budget, threatening to suspend the school year should the government return the wage scale to parliament.

The government has weighed the possibility of introducing new taxes to be able to provide needed funds to finance the wage scale. The measure however was highly criticized and the SCC has called on the government to control the squandering of public funds at Beirut's airport and port and to seek means to fund the state budget that do not put a new strain on low-income citizens.

SourceNaharnet
Comments 0