Finance Committee Completes 2027 Budget Draft; Fee Increases Pending Ministry Consensus

MP Ibrahim Kanj, head of the Finance and Budget Committee, announced the completion of the study and approval of the articles of the 2027 budget law. He noted that a number of articles related to increasing certain fees, proposed by the Ministries of Youth and Sports, Labor, Public Works, General Security, and others, have been suspended for discussion with the concerned ministries and administrations.

Kanj indicated that discussions on allocations for constitutional offices, ministries, and administrations will begin next week, starting with the Presidency of the Republic on Monday, followed by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, with other ministries and institutions to follow sequentially. He noted "good and tangible progress," expressing hope that the government would provide answers to all raised questions, particularly regarding revenues and expenditures, noting that the final accounts statement for 2025 has not yet arrived, which is required before approving the current budget.

Addressing the approval of increasing the Mukhtar stamp from 50,000 LBP to 100,000 LBP, Kanj stated: "This stamp started at five thousand liras years ago, we raised it to 50,000, and today we approved raising it to 100,000 liras to serve the Mukhtar and everything related to his health, recovery, and social affairs. Instead of shortages and deficits in providing these services, his fund will be able to perform the required tasks, after we approved last year a contribution to the fund worth 300 [million]. Any cooperation required to stabilize service for the Mukhtar, who is in direct contact with citizens in every town and village, is welcome, without grandstanding or patronizing gestures."

He pointed out "several measures to curb tax evasion, including text included in the 2027 budget allowing citizens to send their invoices to the invoice lottery organized by the Directorate General of Finance, which enables citizens to win prizes and allows monitoring of tax evasion by comparing what individuals, businesses, or companies submit versus what is revealed through compliance processes. This issue requires a mechanism that the Ministry of Finance will establish, opening the door to greater transparency."

He noted that there are also "measures to tighten up on tax evasion, whether domestically or at the border level for companies and institutions, to ensure full compliance without any exception; either the matter applies to everyone or it does not apply."

Turning to the electricity outage issue, he said: "It is not permissible to burden the citizen who pays his bills with the responsibility for administrative failure, incapacity, and neglect of duties. What is people's fault if they bear the responsibility for a public institution not paying its dues, despite budgets including the necessary allocations for this over many years? What is the fault of those who pay what they owe but do not receive electricity or water, or want to travel but cannot due to power cuts at the airport? Is it reasonable for the citizen to bear the bill first and last? If solutions and allocations are required, the state must bear them. I have been informed that there is a draft law referred by the government to open an additional allocation to close this file and prevent going further with what is happening today regarding basic services."

He added: "We are ready to give this project priority, even during the budget discussion, because it is unacceptable for officials to burden the citizen with the weight of the financial collapse, the burden of their deposits in banks, their electricity, water, and services. The state must assume responsibility and not throw it onto the citizen."

The Finance Committee met under the presidency of Kanj, attended by MPs Ali Fayyad, Alain Aoun, Ali Hassan Khalil, Simon Abi Ramia, Ghassan Hasbani, Fouad Makhzoumi, Jihad Al-Samad, Hassan Fadlallah, Ayoub Hmayed, Ghazi Zaiter, Selim Aoun, Ehab Mater, Raji El-Saad, Adnan Tarabolsi, Cesar Abi Khalil, Jamil Sayyed, Bilal Abdullah, Waddah Al-Sadiq, Taha Naji, Amin Sherri, Farid Al-Bastani, Paula Yacoubian, Melhem Khalaf, Razi Al-Hajj, Firas Hamdan, Mohammad Yahya, and Abdel Aziz Al-Samad.

Also present were Director General of the Ministry of Finance George Maawrawi, Budget Director Carol Abi Khalil Al-Faghali, Revenue Director at the Ministry of Finance Mohammad Wafa'i, and VAT Director at the Ministry of Finance Bilal Shaalan.