Jaber transfers draft 2026 budget to government

BEIRUT — Finance Minister Yassine Jaber announced Friday that he has submitted the draft finance bill for 2026 — the framework for the state budget for that year — to the presidency of the Parliament. The minister emphasized that he sent it within the required deadlines "as he had committed to do," according to a statement.

"In accordance with the provisions of the public accounting law, which stipulates that the finance minister must submit the draft budget to Cabinet, accompanied by a report analyzing the requested appropriations as well as any significant differences between the figures in the draft and those in the current year's budget, I am submitting for your consideration the preliminary draft of the general finance law for 2026, along with a comparison to the 2025 draft and noted discrepancies, as well as the aforementioned report," the minister wrote in a letter to the government attached to the draft.

While Lebanon has almost never adopted a budget on time since the end of the civil war — and spent more than twelve years without even voting on a finance law — the finance ministers of the governments of Nagib Mikati and Nawaf Salam have submitted all budget drafts on time since 2023.