Cabinet will begin studying the 2020 budget next week in an effort to have it ratified by Parliament before its constitutionally mandated deadline at the end of the year, for the first time in over a decade. Information Minister Jamal Jarrah made the announcement Thursday following a quick, calm Cabinet session that saw a decision on controversial judicial appointments postponed, and most other provisions on the 41-item endorsed.
Jarrah said that Cabinet could hold two sessions next week to begin “preliminary readings” of the 2020 budget.
Cabinet only began the study of the 2019 budget in April. It was approved in May and ratified by Parliament in July. The 2018 budget was ratified in March of 2018, and the 2017 budget was ratified in October of that year.
Lebanon had been without a budget for the 12 years before that.
“In the coming days, we will witness major action by the government to protect Lebanon from the storm it is going through,” Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Thursday night during a ceremony honoring pilgrims who had returned from Mecca.
The government has committed itself to having an austerity-heavy 2020 budget approved by Parliament before the end of the year in order to shore up confidence in their ability to address mounting economic and financial woes.
The Daily Star
06/09/2019
