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BUDGET 2022

The 2022 draft budget will not be adopted in its current form, Kanaan says

The 2022 draft budget will not be adopted in its current form, Kanaan says

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan. (Credit: NNA)

BEIRUT — The 2022 draft budget in its current form will not be adopted, neither before nor after the parliamentary elections set to take place on May 15, warned head of the Finance and Budget Committee, Ibrahim Kanaan, on Wednesday after a meeting devoted to study the budget plan prepared by Finance Minister Youssef Khalil and approved by the cabinet.

Here’s what we know:

    • “If the budget remains as it is with all its shortcomings, it will not be adopted. Whether before or after the elections,” said Kanaan. “We are looking to make changes.”

    • He said that the committee studied “social benefits and social assistance, adding that the “Lebanese University cannot be left as it is now, and the amount of social assistance must be delivered to it because it fills a large gap.”

    • Kanaan called on the government to “assume its responsibilities,” saying: “Go ahead, government, for the first time in the history of post-Taif Lebanon, admit your mistake. You have to start reform, and it begins with restoring confidence locally and internationally. Restoring confidence requires restructuring public debt, banks, and fiscal and monetary policy.”

    • Kanaan announced that his committee approved the budgets allocated to the ministries of administrative development, foreign affairs, education and industry.

    • The Finance and Budget Committee has been meeting for two weeks to examine the 2022 budget. The constitutional deadline to adopt the 2022 budget plan expired at the end of January.

BEIRUT — The 2022 draft budget in its current form will not be adopted, neither before nor after the parliamentary elections set to take place on May 15, warned head of the Finance and Budget Committee, Ibrahim Kanaan, on Wednesday after a meeting devoted to study the budget plan prepared by Finance Minister Youssef Khalil and approved by the cabinet. Here’s what we know:    •...