The Grand Serail in Beirut. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient-Le Jour/File Photo)
Citing a “classification error,” the Environment Ministry has called for the withdrawal of a tax on a controversial, and seemingly out-of-the-blue item: coffins.
Drafts sometimes contain errors. But when the Finance Ministry announced its intention, in the 2024 preliminary draft budget, to impose a 0.002 percent tax on “coffins containing human corpses,” at the bottom of the list of imported products, the incongruity of the measure sparked mockery and criticism from the public.
Predictably, the authorities backed down in the face of the outcry. On Wednesday, the Finance Ministry’s press office tried to clear its name. In a press release, it referred to the “confusion caused by the controversy” and stated its intention to “clear up the misunderstanding.”
“What was mentioned in the preliminary draft budget is just one tax proposal among many proposed by the Environment Ministry in a 43-page list. It was never a proposition by the Finance Ministry.”
Speaking to L’Orient-Le Jour, caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said he intends to withdraw the controversial item, after referring to “an error in the HS code,” or goods classification tariff number, “which needs to be rectified.”
Already well behind the constitutional deadlines that require the 2023 budget law to be enacted by Jan. 31, 2023 at the latest, the 2023 finance law, which the cabinet adopted with its amendments on Aug. 15, was submitted to Parliament on Monday.
The cabinet also plans to examine the preliminary draft budget for 2024, which the Finance Ministry submitted last week so that the draft can be sent to Parliament for a vote within the deadlines, which would be a first in many years.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.