Finance and Electricity Vital Issues to be Tackled by Cabinet
The cabinet’s meeting on Thursday is set to tackle 71 articles, none of which are related to people’s everyday concerns in order to avoid addressing the accumulated critical issues, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Thursday.
The government will discuss a plan set by Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil to provide the citizens with electricity on the long term, but it should be addressing how to provide it for the summer season during which the electrical network becomes overloaded, said the newspaper.
Concerning the financial issue, the first test for the new cabinet lies in announcing a new issue of $950 million Eurobonds to be due next month in a bid to lower Lebanon's staggering public debt.
Banking sources also said that the sector’s problems will surface in a short while.
Meanwhile, informed sources noted that the state budget is witnessing a deficit, and the Finance Ministry can’t commit to its obligations over the electricity problem unless the money held by the Telecommunication Minister Nicolas Sahnawi (approximately $2 billion) is transferred to the budget.
Al-Liwaa said that the minister is adopting the policy of his predecessor, Charbel Nahhas, in order to employ these funds in the municipal elections.
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