Finance committee completes first review of 2026 budget bill articles

BEIRUT — Parliament’s finance committee said Wednesday it had completed the review of the articles of the draft state budget for 2026, which it began at the end of October. Eight provisions not approved in the process still need to be revisited, according to its chairman, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, following a meeting attended by Finance Minister Yassine Jaber.

“Today, we finished discussing the articles of the 2026 budget law and have suspended the review of eight articles, which we will take up again after the allocation of credits, starting next week, with ministries, government agencies and public institutions, from the presidency and cabinet to the various funds," Kanaan said, as cited by the state-run National News Agency. "We will examine these credits daily ... to ensure that each receives what it is owed.”

While he did not specify which articles were concerned, the committee chair called on the government to send any amendments related to the public accounting law in a separate bill and to avoid introducing measures “compromising the principle of budget universality,” which requires that all state revenues and expenditures be consolidated and presented as a whole.

The government transmitted the draft in September, coinciding with a visit to Beirut by a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss reforms. The visit ultimately produced less-than-satisfactory results regarding the progress Lebanese authorities had made on structural reforms, at a time when the country is trying to unlock IMF assistance to aid an economy crushed by corruption and further strained by the damages of war.