Budget signed, witness questioned in Ghosn case, gas stations allege fuel hoarding: Everything you need to know to start your Tuesday

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President Michel Aoun signed the draft 2022 budget yesterday and sent it to Parliament for consideration, the president’s office announced via Twitter. Since its approval by cabinet on Feb. 10, the budget has been subject to criticism, with Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan (FPM/Metn) blasting it for increasing taxes while Lebanon’s economy is in the midst of a prolonged contraction. Economy Minister Amin Salam, who is part of the Lebanese delegation in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, said the fund is not happy with the budget either, seemingly for a different reason: it projects a budget deficit of LL7 trillion this year. An IMF delegation arrived in Beirut last night for a multiday visit that is expected to include discussions around the measures that Lebanon must take in order to receive support from the fund, including passing the budget and an electricity sector reform plan. Meanwhile, a delegation from the US Treasury Department is also in Beirut. Last night they met with Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi to discuss “combating crime of all kinds,” as well as smuggling, according to the NNA.

Three French judges involved in the investigation of Lebanese former automotive executive Carlos Ghosn heard a witness in Beirut yesterday and are due to hear another witness today, according to AFP. The judges arrived in Beirut over the weekend, AFP reported on Monday, and are expected to stay until Thursday. According to AFP, French authorities have the ability to ask Lebanese prosecutors to issue an arrest warrant against Ghosn, but it is not clear whether they will do so. This is the second trip to Lebanon by French judges involved in the Ghosn case, the first being last June. The judges are reportedly investigating alleged embezzlement of company funds from his tenure at the helm of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Ghosn has been in Lebanon since December 2019 after fleeing Japan, where he was the subject of legal proceedings he decried as unjust.

The gas station owners’ syndicate accused fuel distribution companies Monday of creating an artificial shortage in the market by hoarding fuel in anticipation of a price increase. The syndicate attributed shortages at the pump to distributors’ unwillingness to supply the stations with fuel, or their delivering of it “in very small quantities.” International oil markets have been in disarray, with the price of oil reaching a seven-year high, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to the station owners, importers have been limiting distribution or suspending it until prices rise. A new price list has been issued today by the Energy Ministry, increasing the cost of fuel, but it remains to be seen if this will end the shortage.

More than a hundred teachers from French system schools protested outside the French Secular Mission to demand a pay raise yesterday. The teachers said that their salaries, which are paid by the Mission, remain pegged at the official rate of LL1,500 to the US dollar. Many other establishments have adjusted salaries as the lira has depreciated, although the adjustments have generally failed to offset the precipitous decline in the lira’s value. Prices, meanwhile, are highly responsive to the current market rate of LL20,000 per dollar.

In case you missed it, here’s our must-read article from yesterday: “Lebanese universities begin to hike their tuition rates in the wake of ‘lollar’ exchange rate increase”