The President of the Council of Ministers Saad Hariri made a statement in Parliament this evening after the adjournment by Deputy Speaker Farid Makari of the parliamentary session. He addressed the issue of the ranks and salaries scale and rumors about news taxes in the draft budget:
“We came in a positive spirit to approve the scale because people need it. Some people know that our political group was reticent about it but we decided to carry on with it because we believe that it is in the interest of the people and it must happen. This issue has been studied and the government and the Minister of Finance worked day and night to provide the funding.”
He added: “We want to be honest with people and with ourselves. It is our duty as government and Parliament to provide the revenues before the spending because we do not want to put people in a situation similar to what happened in Greece and several other countries that declared bankruptcy. We want to approve the scale that people need but we have to protect all Lebanese, including those that benefit from the scale. We are not adding taxes because we love to do so, but to protect those who are benefitting from the scale because this is the political consensus we reached.”
He continued: “I will tell the Ministers of Justice and Interior that a set of lies is being disseminated on social media. If we arrest terrorists, I assure you that we will arrest those who have circulated these lies and we will announce their names. The law will be applied to them, and if there are MPs among them, we can propose to lift their parliamentary immunity. We said that we will regain the confidence of the people and we will. I as a prime minister, as well as Speaker Nabih Berri and President Aoun are determined to regain people’s confidence in the government.”
He added: “We are all here, parliament and government. What happened is shameful and deputy speaker Makari tried several times to manage this session, he was patient and we all agreed. We attended the meetings of the joint committees and we agreed. Yesterday, some people wanted to raise the tax on cement and others not, ultimately we increased the tax, no one got angry, and this is the parliamentary work.
I tell the people and civil society that the indecent words addressed to us insult them. Civil society is supposed to elevate us to its level, not to the level of the indecent words that we are hearing.”
He added: “Concerning the ranks and salaries scale, we are determined to ratify it. I was reticent previously, but now I am a million times more insistent on it. I thank all MPs and the speaker of parliament. We as government will do our duty. Speaker Berri will call for a session soon, and I tell the people who have been waiting that we will adopt the scale, we all agree on it and everyone will be happy. As for the rumors concerning raised taxes on gasoline and bread, I say that if we wanted to raise the taxes we would have announced it. What is happening is lies targeting parliament and the government. Why? There is a real attempt to target the scale, and those who spread the rumors are responsible of the fate of the families who have been waiting for the rank to be adopted. Let them lie, and hopefully when Speaker Berri calls for a session we will see who is lying and who is sincere, and we will see you soon.”
He concluded: “All political forces are here, we all want the scale, we are not responsible of its delay, and there are rumors and lies. The atmosphere in the country affected all this movement, so everyone should assume his responsibility.”
