Conflicting information … Where is the 2021 budget?

Elie Ferzli wrote in the newspaper “Al-Akhbar” under the headline “The 2021 budget: A constitutional obligation without realistic figures?”: “A state of clinical death in which the government lives in Lebanon. At least it is legal and legislative to seek to limit the repercussions of the collapse, the tranquility of the authority is cause for concern.

The constant threat to withhold foreign aid did not help to undo the contract with the government. Officials are told directly that if you don’t form a government quickly, then no one will help you. But indifference seems to be the clearest answer. Authority is inactive to the extent that reforms that may be instituted prior to the formation of the government do not find their way to approval. Not only that, even constitutional obligations do not find their way to implementation!
Budgeting is the main task of any government. It is also the case of the House of Representatives, which is constitutionally obliged to assign its sessions at the beginning of the second decade (“beginning the Tuesday following October 15 and until the end of the year”) to discuss the budget and vote on it “before any other action. “

And if the authority does not care about the constitution, it seems that international pressure has begun to pour into the framework of pressing for the approval of the 2021 budget, in light of the expectations that the period of doing business will be extended. In this context, the British Ambassador to Lebanon, Chris Rampling, said, after his meeting yesterday with Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, that it is “important for the interim government to fulfill its responsibilities, such as preparing the 2021 budget.”
As a result, and after more than a month elapsed since the constitutional deadline, Parliament did not receive the draft budget. According to government sources, the Ministry of Finance is responsible for delaying the finalization of the budget. Although the sources of “finance” confirm that they have not actually finished preparing the project, they refer the reason to the circumstances imposed by the Crown epidemic, and required the closure many times, which caused the delay of the ministries and public institutions in the preparation of their budgets, and also contributed to the delay of “finances” by studying these budgets. (The Minister of Finance compiles the cost estimates and compares them with the import estimates), before preparing the budget ”. Read the full article Press here.