| | | Date: May 25, 2019 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | Lebanon: Cabinet agrees to all articles in draft budget | BEIRUT: Cabinet Friday agreed to all articles in the 2019 draft state budget during its 19th session dedicated to discussing the document, Information Minister Jamal Jarrah announced following the meeting.
“Today we have finished endorsing all the articles, all the decisions, everything," said Jarrah, who speaks on behalf of Cabinet after every session.
He added that a session will be held in Baabda Palace, at a date to be determined, to formally endorse the budget. This likely brings to a close a more than three-week period of near-daily sessions devoted to studying the budget. After its endorsement, the budget will be referred to Parliament for study and ratification.
Prior to the session, Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil said “we hope” the session will be the last, as “I finished my budget a long time ago.”
A number of ministers, including Khalil, have blamed the delay to approve the budget on last-minute proposals put forward by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil aimed at reducing the deficit further than the existing draft, which he has described as “insufficient.”
Jarrah had said Wednesday that ministers had managed to reduce the deficit to 7.5 percent of the GDP, down from an estimated 11 percent in 2018.
As she entered the Grand Serail, Minister of State for Administrative Development May Chidiac said she and her fellow Lebanese Forces ministers said that despite “reservations” on the draft document, they would be happy to hold a vote on the budget in order to pass it as soon as possible. |
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