Jumblat Warns of Wage Scale Impact as Miqati, Karami Decide to Boycott Tuesday Session
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat recognized on Monday “sacrifices” made by the Syndicate Coordination Committee and its “legitimate” social demands regarding the new wage scale.
He told the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website however: “Any adventure in approving the wage scale will have unpredictable repercussions on the national economy.”
He explained that the failure to provide the funding of the scale only emphasizes his warning.
The repercussions of the adoption of the wage hike should be sufficient warning against its approval “regardless of the extent of the popular demand for it,” he added.
“Protecting the national economy and monetary stability is the responsibility of all political powers,” Jumblat remarked.
He also urged them to launch a “wide administrative reform operation in various sectors.”
“This demand should rise above petty political interests,” stressed the MP.
Jumblat also highlighted other problems facing the economy, such as the lack of a state budget, the rising public debt, losses in the energy sector, and increase in unemployment
“There is a need to focus attention on the economy as all sides are too busy offering analyses of international developments while the Lebanese citizen seeks the election of a president and earning a decent living,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, al-Tadamon bloc, which comprises Tripoli MPs Najib Miqati and Ahmed Karami, announced that it will boycott Tuesday's session over the new wage scale because the proposed draft “does not balance between expenditure and revenues.”
“The suggested additional revenues represent an obstacle to economic growth, especially amid the current economic situations, not to mention the dangerous impact of the deficit estimated by the recent draft state budget, which does not even mention the new wage scale's figures,” the bloc said in a statement.
“The most important missing point is agreement over the reforms, which are inevitable if we want any reformist plan to succeed,” it added.
The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, has called for a two-day strike after Education Minister Elias Bou Saab pledged to hold the official exams on time even if parliament failed to approve the pay hike.
It held on Monday a sit-in in Beirut amid a deepening row with lawmakers on the wage scale draft-law and with the education minister on the official exams that are set to start on Thursday.
Parliament is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to address the new wage scale draft-law.
It is not clear whether MPs will approve the scale because the different parties represented in parliament remain divided over proposed taxes to fund the raise.
The public sector employees and teachers are holding onto a 121 percent increase in their salaries. But a ministerial-parliamentary committee has proposed to reduce the total funding from LL2.8 trillion ($1.9 billion) to LL1.8 trillion ($1.2 billion).
It has also called for raising certain taxes, which are a source of controversy among parliamentary blocs.
M.T./Y.R.
G.K.
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