Berri Says MPs Have Right to Take Their Time in Debating 2019 Budget
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Wednesday that lawmakers have the right to take their time in debating and approving the 2019 state budget although it has missed its constitutional deadline.
“MPs have the right to raise all issues and problems related to the draft state budget and the current draft is not at all binding for them,” Berri told lawmakers during the weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting.
“They have enough time to debate it from square one,” he added.
“The Parliament will perform its duty and practice its role fully in studying the budget,” Berri went on to say, expecting the finance committee to convene Monday to scrutinize the budget's philosophy and to hold successive sessions after Eid al-Fitr,” Berri went on to say.
“The debate will be open-ended in the committee and subsequently in the general assembly and it will take its time,” Berri said, noting that he has instructed the committee to hold several sessions everyday.
President Michel Aoun had hoped earlier on Wednesday that the budget will be approved in Parliament “as quickly as possible.”
The Cabinet held 19 sessions to finalize the budget after Lebanon vowed to slash public spending to unlock $11 billion worth of aid pledged by international donors during an April 2018 conference in Paris.
Last month, Prime Minister Saad Hariri vowed to introduce "the most austere budget in Lebanon's history" to combat the country's bulging fiscal deficit.
Lebanon is one of the world's most indebted countries, with public debt estimated at 141 percent of GDP in 2018, according to credit ratings agency Moody's.
Source: Naharnet
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