Revenue from citizens ’pockets and shadow economy in safe

The Council of Ministers will hold a session tomorrow in the Republican Palace to discuss the Ministry of Finance’s offer to do so, the draft general budget law for the year 2026.

The “Salvation and Reform” government offered several reform addresses, and when it laid down its general conversion to 2026, the reformist direction was absent from its project, foremost of which is tax reform. The lack of collection of revenues, from tax sources outside the pockets of citizens, such as the absence of tax on marine and river properties, is not the only defect in the project, which the Minister of Finance Yassin Jaber referred to the presidency of the Council of Ministers, committed to the legal and constitutional deadlines, and in this a positive point that is registered with the government, but beyond the legal deadlines, there are question marks about the deficit and the economic vision that is not noted in the project.
Yashoui: a budget and paper
In the form, the estimated revenues are equal to the expenses, and the treasury was not recorded on the treasury, with an increase in the extent of the expected revenues by 12 and 15% compared to the budget of 2025. The economist Dr. Elie Yathoui in a comment on the deficit, he pointed out in an interview with “Lebanon 24” to Lebanon’s need for a balanced budget, Lebanon requires a review of the expenses, so the service of public debt is no longer present due to bankruptcy And stop paying. Thus, it remains a clause of administrative expenditures, and the item of spending on development projects. As for the 2026 budget, it is a theoretical and metaphysical budget that is only, and the reason is due to the absence of a clear economic policy, and the lack of reforms in the administration and the tax collection, and the lack of collection of the state to public services bills, as well as the absence of tax justice and the lack of collection of fines of violations on marine and river properties. Theory, put projects closer to reality and not far away from it.
Fahili: To activate the collection
The government has achieved a surplus in its account with the Bank of Lebanon, taking advantage of the high exchange rate, and therefore there is no problem in securing the necessary revenues to cover operational expenditures, the economic researcher Dr. Mohamed Fahili drew in an interview with “Lebanon 24, indicating that the deficit should not be measured by covering operating expenses, and this is intuitive, but rather in the inability to finance the investment distraction. Instead of reforming the tax system, especially since the volume of shadow economy reaches 50% and depends on cash circulation, which is outside the framework of censorship. Naval and crushers and the permissibility of public property, it must be arrested or activated at least. ”Adoption of the price of 89500
The budget adopted the exchange rate circulating in the central, i.e. 89,500 pounds, and here Yashoui asks why the dollar depositors are not disbursed according to this price, and how it is permissible for the citizen to pay taxes according to 89500 while his money receives 15,000 “these alone constitute a condemnation of officials as well as the launch of Riyad Salama without trial.”
As for my fact, he pointed out that 89,500 thousand is the price of revenues, and it is collected from the pockets of citizens, who pay the income tax according to this price, considering that the state’s interest requires maintaining this price, so that it was able to increase its revenues.
Half budget for salaries and wages
Expenditures on salaries and wages increased in the 2026 budget, without public sector reforms taking its way to implementation. It is noteworthy that the fuel tax that was mentioned in the budget project as part of the collection of revenues, the State Shura Council had brought it down. As for the rest of the expected revenues, it comes from the taxes and fees that were approved in the 2025 budget.
The budget did not monitor funds for the implementation of investment projects that it pledged to be completed, including Qulayat Airport. Here Fahili draws that investment expenditures must be funded, but not necessarily by monitoring funds for investment projects in the budget, but may be funded by other sources through the partnership between the public and private sectors.
In the second chapter and within the amendment of the program laws, the budget draft was included in a program of building buildings for public administrations in order to dispense the state and its official departments on the burdens and foods of renting buildings and construction that it occupies as centers and offices for them, which is a clause that it would translate on the ground to reduce the financial burdens.
In the outcome, the reform vision was absent from the 2026 budget, the taxes went towards the productive sectors, the project ignored the chronic encroachments on marine properties, and the shadow economy remained immune to the eyes of the state and its lovers.