NNA - MP Mark Daou wrote today on platform "X": “The state budget that the government boasted about completing on time is intended to rectify the prices that were set in the previous budget which were calculated at the dollar/LBP excharge rate of 1,500, in order to increase the state’s revenues from 700 million dollars to 3 billion dollars...The taxes that were approved in the 2024 budget were placed randomly within the framework of the bargains carried out by the majority of the blocs that supported it and voted for it. They did not differentiate between the rich and the poor, especially since the largest state revenues and the majority of taxes such as TVA, customs, and the 3% increase on imports, are all public taxes and affect the wealthy as well as the average citizen...It did not include any real study, which would negatively affect the economic movement, while it would have been more correct to increase taxes on profits and capital.”

Daou continued: "In addition to the abovementioned, this budget did not highlight increasing services for citizens, which will open the way for continued tax evasion since the citizen will see in this a way to protect himself from the state that is supposed to be his protector."

Finally, Daou concluded by saying: "In general, the 2024 annual budget is not reformist and is unfair, as it undermines the principle of social justice and increases the gap between the citizen and the Lebanese state. In short, increasing random taxes without providing services is tantamount to increasing tax evasion.”

=========R.Sh.