An-Nahar – Salwa Baalbaki

After a long wait and debate, and doubts about the ability of the parliamentary components to agree to pass the 2024 budget in the Parliament after the fundamental amendments noted by the Finance Committee in 26 marathon sessions, the budget was approved, and perhaps it is correct to say that two-thirds of a new budget was approved after most of the items were removed and their provisions were replaced or modified.

The Finance and Budget Committee is noted for its dynamism in confronting the government through its insistence on “boring dissection” and refuting the numbers in detail, in a way that serves public funds and the state’s need on the one hand, and the ability and potential of citizens, companies, institutions and investors in a time of prolonged collapse in most economic and productive sectors on the other hand. Study of the draft budget law for the year 2024 resulted in the cancellation of 46 articles, the amendment of 73 articles, the approval of 14 articles as stated, and the addition of 8 articles.

In terms of cancellation, canceling 46 articles is equivalent to “abolishing at least 30 disasters,” especially since some of the canceled articles are considered budget knights, including those related to the introduction of new taxes and fees, the most notable of which are:
– Deducting 3% of the value of bank deposits belonging to a deceased person (Article 79).
– Imposing a fee on students in private education (Article 128).
– Introducing a fee for express and emergency services in public administrations (Article 20).
– Imposing fees on service allowances in most ministries, such as Education, Higher Education, Youth, Sports, Labor, and Environment (Ministry of Education and Higher Education 63 – Ministry of Labor 54 – Ministry of Youth and Sports 57 – Ministry of Environment 98).
– Imposing a fee on foreign external transport trucks entering Lebanon (Article 114).
– Multiplying fines 40 times (Article 60).
– The Council of Ministers approved amending reductions in taxes and fees (Article 83).
– Imposing a fee on soft drinks, energy drinks, and drinks containing sugar (Article 104).
– Imposing an additional fee on licensing the investment of tourism establishments (Article 44).
– Imposing a fee on the export of surplus raw material waste (Article 117).
– Imposing a fee on some tobacco and tobacco products and their substitutes (Article 118).
Exempting donations made from abroad to civil society organizations from value-added tax (Article 126).

The text relating to granting appropriations to cover the interest on development loans was also cancelled, after the extent of clientelism surrounding the granting of these loans became clear, and the acting Governor of the Bank of Lebanon unilaterally issued its report (Article 10), and the text relating to raising the fine for executing a death certificate by 15 times (Article 93), in addition. To the text related to the authorization for those charged with paying the taxes and fees due on them for the previous periods from their accounts opened in foreign currencies with banks before the date of 10/18/2019 on the basis of 50% of the exchange rate on the platform approved by the Bank of Lebanon (Article 21).

In terms of amendments, it dealt with amending the text related to the borrowing authorization and restricting it to the estimated deficit in the budget because this authorization, before amending the borrowing ceiling, was costing the treasury no less than a thousand billion pounds in interest on treasury bonds that did not need to be issued.

– Determining the method of opening contract and payment credits for loans concluded by the state or contracted on its behalf, as it turned out that no loan for which contract and payment credits were opened at all.

– Controlling spending on donations by canceling the text that removes them from prior oversight of the expenditure contract by the Audit Bureau and the expenditure contract controller.

– Fairness to low-income employees and workers through:
• Raising the value of the income tax portions due on their salaries and monthly and daily wages by a rate of 60 times what they were before the year 2022, after it was 11 times in the government project. The first part subject to tax at a rate of 2% was 6 million liras before the year 2022, so the government’s project became 70 million liras, and after the amendment by the committee, 360 million liras.
• Raising the value of family discounts exempt from income tax by 60 times what it was before 2022, after it was 14 times in the government project. Whereas the family allowance for a single employee was 7.5 million liras, the government project now amounts to 108 million liras, and in the committee’s amendment it is 450 million liras.

– Reducing the tax burden imposed on the transfer fee by raising the value of the apartments at a rate of 60 times what it was before the year 2022, after it was 11 times in the government project. After the first part subject to the transfer fee was 30 million liras before the year 2022, this part of the government’s project became 330 million liras, and after the committee’s amendment, 1.8 billion liras.

– Conducting exceptional treatment of negative and positive exchange differences resulting from fluctuations in the Lebanese currency exchange rate in the budgets of income tax taxpayers. A property that was purchased for 200,000 dollars based on an exchange rate of 1,500 pounds to the dollar and whose value in US dollars is now 150,000 based on an exchange rate of 89,000 pounds to the dollar, or even its value in dollars remains the same, the positive exchange differences resulting from the depreciation of the Lebanese currency are not considered differences. Positive indeed. The value of the property decreased in foreign currency, or did not increase, while its value increased in Lebanese currency.

Delete every text that aims to legislate the phrase “a banking platform” and replace it, wherever it appears, with the text “the exchange rate determined by the Bank of Lebanon,” which has the legal authority in this regard.

– Unifying standards in amending taxes, fees, service allowances and fines after the proposal to amend them was random and did not take into account the prevailing economic conditions (table below):

The source of the drawing was previously
LL in a project
Government LL as amended by the Committee
Of
Judicial fees:
Pointing
On the books of traders 20 45,000 200
Register a store
In the commercial register 2,000 50,000,000 20,000
Registration of a company of persons
In the commercial register 2,000 100,000,000 20,000
Registration of a money company
In the commercial register 2,000 300,000,000 20,000
Registering a place for a foreigner
In the commercial register 2,000 100,000,000 20,000
registration
Foreign persons company
In the commercial register 2,000 200,000,000 20,000
registration
Foreign capital company
In the commercial register 2,000 600,000,000 20,000
fees
Spirits:

Importers of spirits per brand (brand) 900,000 270,000,000 41,400,000
Beverage producers
Local spiritual people
For each brand (brand) 500,000 150,000,000 23,000,000
Beverage merchants
Spiritual wholesale 500,000 150,000,000
Beverage merchants
Spirituality in Mafraq 400,000 120,000,000 18,400,000 For major stores and supermarkets
1,150,000 for the rest of the stores
fees
Nomination for elections:
For parliamentary elections 30,000,000 500,000,000 600,000,000
For municipal elections 500,000 50,000,000 10,000,000
For optional elections 500,000 25,000,000 10,000,000
License fees
Hunting weapon:
Hunting weapon, one shot, one nozzle 50,000 3,000,000 2,300,000
Two-shot hunting weapon
Two nozzles 100,000 6,000,000 4,600,000
Hunting weapon, 3 shots, semi-automatic 200,000 12,000,000 9,200,000
A hunting weapon with one or more bullet nozzles 200,000 12,000,000 9,200,000

Additions to the 2024 budget?
As for the additions made by the committee, the addition of an article prohibiting the giving of treasury advances in contravention of the provisions of the Public Accounting Law that regulates their giving, and making the violator responsible for paying the advances with his own funds and referring him to the competent judiciary, is considered an achievement in terms of limiting spending through treasury advances in contravention of the provisions of the Public Accounting Law. After this spending increased during the year 2023, as the value of the treasury advances that the Ministry of Finance reported in writing about giving it reached 31.892 billion liras, while the Prime Minister reported during the General Assembly meeting that it amounted to more than 90 thousand billion liras, which is equivalent to 225% of the spending potential. Available through the year 2023 based on base twelve.

Adding an article requiring the exchange of information between the Ministry of Finance and Social Security regarding salaries and wages is also considered an effective means of reducing tax evasion on the one hand, and declaring a contribution subject to income that is less than required on the other hand.

Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, confirmed to An-Nahar that the draft budget law for the year 2024, as amended by the Finance and Budget Committee, is not the ideal draft for the state budget. However, in his opinion, “it remains much better than the disastrous draft that the government sent with its determination to issue it by decree in what… If the committee does not complete its study and amend it and the Parliament approves it as amended within the constitutional deadline. Also, approving the draft budget for the year 2024 without approving the financial accounts as required by the provisions of Article 87 of the Lebanese Constitution remains a stain on successive governments that refrain from preparing and submitting it within the constitutional deadlines.”

He said: “As a result of our parliamentary oversight, we reached zero budget deficit and a modest surplus in the treasury (13 thousand billion liras), but not the state deficit, which today requires addressing the public debt, restructuring the banking sector and the public sector, and stopping violations of treasury advances.”

It remains that the state, despite its fragility, gained two things: The first is that the budget was approved despite the political and security conditions and the region’s tension and its impact on the southern border, and it did not fall into the trap of indifference or issuing it according to a decree in the government without passing through the morgue of the people’s representatives in accordance with the constitution. The second thing is its success in passing a very important entitlement in light of an economic, financial and monetary collapse and holding a parliamentary session without bringing up the complications of not legislating in light of the presidential vacancy.