The Lebanese Parliament in Beirut. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Parliament will meet next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to discuss the 2022 budget's draft law, the state-run national News Agency reported on Thursday.
The deputies are convened by the House Speaker Nabih Berri to meet at 11 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as in the evening of those same days, and at 3 p.m. on Friday.
On Aug. 25, the Finance and Budget Committee completed its review of the long-delayed draft budget, but failed to decide on all outstanding issues.
Head of the Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan, said after the meeting on Aug. 25 that he will file a report including "all remarks and objections, what was approved and what was not, and this is in the hope that the 2023 budget will be better developed."
Each fiscal year, the state budget must be finalized by the end of the year, or Dec. 31. The Ministry of Finance should prepare the pre-budget to be finalized by August, which is then sent to the Council of Ministers and should usually be approved by the cabinet's session around October, to then be sent to Parliament to vote on the budget before the end of the year. If the budget is not finalized and approved by the end of the year, as per Article 86 of the Constitution, there can be an extension of one month, where the budget of that month in the previous year would be used.
At this time, the overdue 2022 budget is still being debated, despite the 2023 budget deadline approaching a few months away.
MP Ghassan Hasbani (Lebanese Forces/Beirut I), who is also a member of the committee pointed to the “lack of clarity” in the draft budget, stressing in particular that it did not contain a “clear” strategy to get Lebanon out of the crisis into which it has been sinking since 2019, and did not resolve the issue of the exchange rate.
Containing nearly 140 provisions, not counting the various ministerial budgets, those of public institutions and annexes, the draft budget for 2022 was approved in February by Najib Mikati’s government.
The adoption of a credible state budget, even outside the constitutional deadline that expired earlier this year, is one of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund as part of a $3 billion dollar financial assistance program, after a preliminary agreement was reached with Lebanon on April 7.