Finance and Budget Committee approves budget plans for defense, labor and social affairs ministries

BEIRUT — The Finance and Budget Committee approved the budget plans for the defense, labor and social affairs ministries, committee head Ibrahim Kanaan wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. The committee also discussed different ways the government can finance the ration card, in case it faces funding delays from the World Bank, Kanaan added.

Here’s what we know:

    • “We focused on the issue of funding for the National Social Security Fund, so it can properly pay for hospitalization for the Lebanese,” Kanaan tweeted.

    • The private hospital owners’ syndicate warned in early March that only medical cases requiring critical care will be covered by the National Social Security Fund, while dialysis and cancer patients will have to pay the full cost of their treatment. These changes to the hospitals’ policy were announced after the NSSF stopped paying the monthly advances to hospitals, but were later postponed by one week after General Confederation of Lebanese Workers head Bechara Asmar’s promised to intervene. The changes have still not gone into effect.

    • Kanaan continued that the committee discussed the army’s budget, and reiterated its concerns over soldiers’ access to “nutrition, medicine, medical care, and maintenance for the military, and asked to amend it [the budget] for approval in the next session.”

    • Lebanon’s currency has depreciated by more than 90 percent since the start of the socio-economic crisis in 2019, driving down soldiers’ wages. Some members of the military have taken extra jobs, while others have been forced to quit. Last January, the US promised $67 million in assistance for the military.

    • The Finance and Budget Committee met in the presence of the social affairs and labor ministers to study and approve the budget of their departments and institutions.