Kataeb Warns against Reinstating Taxes on Low-Income Citizens

The Kataeb Party on Tuesday warned authorities against reinstating taxes on low-income citizens, after the Constitutional Council revoked a tax law aimed at funding a wage scale for civil servants.

“The Kataeb Party rejects the reinstatement of taxes on low-income citizens instead of exerting serious efforts to stop shady deals and put an end to corruption and the waste of public money,” Kataeb's political bureau said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

The party “warns the ruling political class against violating the law and the Constitution every time its political and financial interests do not match the laws and the constitutional norms,” it said.

The political bureau also called for “approving a state budget, according to the Constitution, that includes all the necessary reforms to stop financial squandering and control spending.”

The Constitutional Council had annulled the tax law after Kataeb's MPs and five other lawmakers filed an appeal against it citing voting and financial violations.

The Council demanded that authorities amend some of the law's articles so that they conform with the applicable laws.

The government has recently approved the requested amendments, reportedly keeping the taxes intact while revising the law's wording.

Kataeb has not ruled out filing a new appeal against the law.

The law involves hiking the VAT tax from 10% to 11%, fines on seaside violations, and taxes on cement, administrative transactions, real estate transactions, phone bills, commercial bills, imported alcoholic beverages, tobacco, sea imports, lottery prizes, financial firms, banks and travel tickets.

Authorities have argued that the new taxes are necessary to fund the new wage scale but opponents of such a move have called for finding new revenues through putting an end to corruption and the waste of public money.