Date: Feb 9, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Lebanon: Cabinet to win confidence, get to work Choucair: I will be first to oppose new taxes Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: All is set for the new government to get down to business after having ensured it will win a vote of confidence with a wide majority from Parliament next week, political sources said Friday, amid growing domestic calls for quick action to take on the daunting challenges facing the country. “After a consensus on its policy statement was achieved in a record time of three days, the path appears to be smoothed for the new government to begin working on a host of key economic and political issues after winning a guaranteed vote of confidence from Parliament,” a political source told The Daily Star. “Swift action is urgently needed to make up for the lost time in forming the government,” the source said, referring to more than eight months of wrangling among rival factions over the distribution of key ministerial portfolios that had delayed the formation. Prime Minister Saad Hariri is set to leave Beirut Saturday on a two-day visit to the UAE to attend the “International Summit of Governments” conference and a deliver a speech there, a source close to the premier told The Daily Star. Media reports said Hariri might meet with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan during his visit. The Central News Agency, quoting political sources, said Hariri planned to embark on a tour of some Gulf Arab and Western countries in the next few weeks aiming to rally support for the government in the implementation of key economic and financial reforms recommended at the CEDRE conference held in Paris last year. In addition to nationwide satisfaction, Hariri’s formation of a 30-member national unity Cabinet on Jan. 31 has also evoked wide relief across the international community, which had previously warned of dire consequences for the country’s ailing economy posed by the absence of a new government. A number of senior foreign officials are coming to Beirut this month to show support and solidarity with the government, the political source said. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit will visit Lebanon Monday for talks with the country’s top leaders, the source said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is scheduled to arrive in Beirut on the same day for talks with Lebanese leaders, including Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, on bilateral relations and regional developments, the source added. Zarif’s visit comes as the United States has toughened economic sanctions on Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, which Washington brands a “terrorist” organization. Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign affairs representative, who had praised the Cabinet formation as important step for Lebanon’s stability, is slated to visit Beirut at the end of the month for discussions with top leaders on challenges facing Lebanon, the source said. This comes after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte ended a one-day visit to Beirut Thursday after talks with President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Hariri on bilateral relations and regional developments. He also reaffirmed his country’s support for the Lebanese. Shortly after the Cabinet approved its policy statement during a meeting at Baabda Palace Thursday - in record time, taking just a week - Berri called for morning and evening parliamentary sessions to be held next Tuesday and Wednesday to debate the blueprint before granting a vote of confidence to the government. Following the approval of the policy statement, Information Minister Jamal Jarrah said the government was committed to implementing a series of essential economic and financial reforms included in the draft statement and seen as crucial to moving forward on accessing over $11 billion in grants and soft loans that were pledged by international donors at the CEDRE conference. Hariri had stressed that revitalizing the country’s flagging economy was the new government’s main challenge. He pledged to carry out key structural, economic and financial reforms to bolster an economy encumbered by soaring public debt of $84 billion, or 155 percent of gross domestic product, low growth and an endemic budget deficit. MP and former Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said his bloc would work to ensure the success of the new government. “The government will win [a vote] of confidence according to all expectations next week through the parliamentary blocs participating in it. Of course, the government is facing major challenges and tasks,” Hajj Hasan told supporters in the eastern city of Baalbek. “We in the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc and Hezbollah will work in an intensive manner to ensure the success of the government’s work. We see that it is essential for the government to do its job in confronting big issues, the first of which is the economic situation that is exerting pressure on the Lebanese. Unemployment is high, the poverty rate is also rising and the youth do not find jobs,” he added. Ahmad Hariri, secretary-general of the Future Movement, called for fighting corruption and enacting reforms in order for Lebanon to overcome the economic crisis. He spoke to reporters after meeting with Berri at the head of a Future Movement delegation sent at Hariri’s request to invite the speaker to a rally the movement is set to hold on Feb. 14, the 14th anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination. “We stressed that we had passed a difficult stage that no one wanted. But this difficult stage cannot be passed unless we take serious action by approving [economic reform] laws and fighting corruption. This can be done by each institution, Parliament, the Cabinet, as well as all judicial and supervisory institutions playing their role,” Ahmad Hariri said. As part of the necessary reforms, the policy statement stipulates that Lebanon will reduce the deficit by 1 percent annually over the next five years. To boost revenues and reduce state spending, the state will begin by cutting down on subsidies to the state-run Electricite du Liban estimated at $2 billion annually, according to the draft statement. The statement also says Lebanon has committed to “a consistent financial and monetary policy to boost confidence in the national economy and reduce the public debt-to-GDP ratio by increasing the size of the economy and reducing the Treasury deficit.” Choucair: I will be first to oppose new taxes BEIRUT: Telecommunications Minister Mohamed Choucair Saturday said he would oppose any new taxes in the new Cabinet, and called a 2017 public sector salary hike a “sacred right for all.” “I will be the first to stand in the face of [new] taxes in Cabinet,” Choucair said during an interview on Voice of Lebanon radio (100.3). He added that the government should look to remedy Lebanon’s ailing economic and financial situation by addressing the deficit-ridden electricity sector and lowering the waste of public money. Some activists have suggested that the new government, in an effort to lower the country’s soaring debt, would look to impose an increase in the value-added tax to boost state revenue. There have also been rumors of a potential move to roll back the salary scale, which in 2017 was the first public sector wage hike in two decades. Cabinet’s policy statement lists a series of reforms aimed at lowering the deficit, though it has not been made public pending a vote of confidence by Parliament next week. Meanwhile, Progressive Socialist Party MP Bilal Abdallah said his party was concerned with a portion of the statement that calls for reforming the public sector pension system. “We don’t know in which direction [this is going],” Bilal said. He also noted the PSP would work to protect public sector workers from “arbitrary dismissal.” "People are not numbers,” he said.