The pressure of the IMF may push towards touching the depositors’ funds

Al -Diyar wrote:
Economic sources indicate that the agreement with the International Monetary Fund is still far. This is confirmed by one of the deputies in his private councils, as it is considered that the categories of the financial gap law are large and it is possible to fall into a political crisis over a period of six months of parliamentary elections. The deputy adds that the auctions will be the prominent factor in the next stage, especially since the political price may be very expensive for the deputies of the deputies to vote on a law that may lead to deletion of deposits.

The economist, Professor Jassim Agaqa, said in an interview with “Kuwaiti News” that “the International Monetary Fund is pressuring the government in order to reduce public debt, and for this, things may go towards touching the money of depositors in one way or another, and this without problems and we are at the gates of parliamentary elections, which means exerting pressure on the deputies.”
He pointed out that “the leakage of the government’s plan to develop frameworks to solve the continuous depositors crisis in banks, is to give priority to the small depositors. Bonds issued by the Bank of Lebanon for a period of 15 years.
Omaima Shams Al -Din Valladar wrote: The Council of Ministers succeeded in approving the 2026 budget in accordance with its constitutional dates and before the visit of the International Monetary Fund delegation to Lebanon, after successive sessions that focused on a careful discussion of the budget materials and its items, in light of trade union moves and financial pressures, and the conditions presented by the International Monetary Fund.
Two positives are recorded for this budget in the form and are reflected in its approval within the constitutional deadline, and in the content it is reflected in its non -guarantees of new taxes and focusing on improving the collection and combating tax evasion, and this is confirmed by the Minister of Information after the cabinet session .. And when Morcos explained that the revenues in the budget project were estimated “in an accurate way with the aim of not actual impotence when implementing, he pointed out that” it is not possible at the present time that it is not possible It includes a correction of salaries and wages for all public sector workers civilians, military and retirees.
In his reading of the budget, the researcher in financial and economic affairs, Dr. Mahmoud Jabai, stressed that there will be no tax increase for the past year, except for the expected revenues between 800 – 900 million dollars that depend on the Ministry of Finance’s vision in terms of controlling customs in the port and the airport and improving the collection “because we have a customs waste with hundreds of millions of dollars annually”. Jabai said in his speech to Al -Dayar that the words of the Minister of Finance are accurate in terms of not imposing new taxes, but there are expected revenues from the collection operations, stressing that if there is real control over the tax and customs, and the Ministry of Finance succeeded in cooperation with all other ministries, it is possible to collect higher revenues on the subject of customs from the aforementioned number.
According to my mountain, this budget is not excellent due to the reason for the political, security and economic conditions that the country is going through, but it is the best possible, but if the Ministry of Finance succeeds in the subject of collection, this is a beginning towards real reform, because our main problems are due to customs evasion, tax evasion and border smuggling, in addition to marine properties that are within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works that must improve fees according to the value of each leased region.
On the issue of increasing public sector salaries that were not noticed by the 2026 budget, Jabai said: “It is not possible to talk about the status of the budget and improve the salaries without talking about restructuring the public sector, as there are more than 30 thousand unproductive jobs in the Lebanese state, explaining that the volume of public expenditures in any budget must not exceed 15 – 18% of the total of local product,“ but this percentage has reached before the crisis to 35 – 40% It decreased to 18%. ”
He added: “The volume of public sector productivity must be determined and then we are talking about improving salaries.