Lebanon's complacent politicians choose more taxes over reforms
As the Lebanese government passed a new budget that includes tax hikes and spending increases, economic experts are calling on politicians to instead focus on fighting corruption and money waste in state institutions.
The large protests in Lebanon on March 15, which were triggered by fresh tax hikes passed by the Lebanese parliament, underline the population’s unease with the politicians’ disastrous governing policies that focus on increasing revenues without implementing much-needed reforms, in light of a failing economy plagued by corruption and waste.
“The current government policies are completely upside down,” Nassib Ghobril, the chief economist at Byblos Bank, told Al-Monitor. “After six years of [economic] slowdown, the new budget — the first to be passed by the Cabinet in 12 years — should stimulate the economy and reduce spending; it has done neither.”
