by thenational.ae –Sunniva Rose ––Lebanon’s Cabinet plans to cap salaries for top-earning government employees and may halve the pay of MPs and ministers, after reports of public-sector pay cuts in the 2019 draft budget triggered nationwide protests. The maximum salary in the public sector will be limited to 20 times the national minimum wage, or 13.5 million Lebanese pounds (Dh32,890) a month in the draft budget, which is being discussed by the Cabinet, Information Minister Jamil Jarrah said on Wednesday. Budget discussions are scheduled to end on Friday, after which it will be sent to Parliament for approval. Mr Jarrah has not confirmed reports that the Cabinet was considering cutting the salaries of MPs, ministers and the president by 50 per cent, saying only that “there is an atmosphere tending towards salary cuts because one must start with oneself”.

Lebanese MPs are among the highest paid in the world compared to the national minimum wage, said a report published in 2017 by Lebanese non-profit Legal Agenda. An MP earns 18 times the minimum salary of $450 (Dh1,652) a month. Members in Tunisia, Iraq and Jordan earn 15 times the minimum wage, but only six times as much in Britain. The sum varies depending on the number of terms served. Controversially, MPs continue receiving a salary for life and their family also receive monthly compensation when they die.

The country’s leader also has a salary for life, but that is not considered as problematic because most presidents around the world do. The draft budget states that the president’s salary is equal to 12.5m pounds, but local newspapers report that that it reaches 18.7m pounds. Analysts say that this is because President Michel Aoun accumulates compensation for earlier serving as an MP, Prime minister and army commander. The Speaker of Parliament and Prime Minister each earn 17.7m pounds a month, while ministers’ salaries go as high as 12.9m pounds.

In total, the state spends 58bn pounds a year on MPs, ministers and the president, Al Akhbar daily reported, quoting Beirut consultancy Information International. The idea of reducing politicians’ pay has been floated for a long time but has never been introduced. In 2012, one Lebanese party, the Kataeb, also known as the Phalange, suggested cutting by up to 50 per cent the salaries of MPs who did not attend parliamentary sessions, to discourage absenteeism. But lowering salaries would not lead to a significant reduction in the budget deficit, which reached 11.2 per cent of GDP in 2018. Its only aim is to “throw ashes over the eyes of the people and justify any actions that may affect the poor and the middle class”, Al Akhbar said.

by DailyStar.com.lb — Joseph Haboush — BEIRUT: Former Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir was in critical condition late Wednesday, prompting current Patriarch Beshara Rai to cancel a trip to Africa to remain “close” to him, according to a source close to the religious leaders. Sfeir, who would turn 99 next week, was admitted to Hotel Dieu […]

BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will lift the travel warning on Lebanon soon, the National News Agency (NNA) reported Tuesday. “A team from the Department of Civil Aviation of the UAE is meeting with the Lebanese Civil Aviation team to study some technical matters,” said Hamad Bin Saeed Al Shamsi, UAE ambassador […]

BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Lebanese people flocked to supermarkets and shops on Sunday to prepare for the holy month of Ramadan amid worries about an increase in prices of goods during this period. “Every year, prices will surely increase during this month,” a citizen told Xinhua. Lebanese Economy Minister Mansour Bteish called on all shops not […]

BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri signed Friday evening three agreements with his Egyptian counterpart Mostafa Madbouly in Beirut covering various areas, said a statement issued by Lebanese prime minister’s office. The agreements cover the exchange of expertise in taxation rules between Egypt and Lebanon, Lebanon’s import of construction materials from Egypt and […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A top Lebanese banker warned on Thursday that a proposed hike in the tax on interest income would affect capital flows to Lebanon, weaken banks’ ability to play their financing role in the economy, and obstruct growth. The Lebanese government is currently discussing a draft 2019 budget that would raise the tax […]

by thepienews.com —Four universities in Lebanon are being investigated for selling fake degrees, which has led to more than 40 people being arrested, with the country’s director general of Higher Education being implicated. According to The National, Ahmed el-Jammal was the highest profile to have been taken into custody in a spate of arrests in […]

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s finance minister says the government has started open-ended discussions to quickly approve the country’s draft austerity budget. Lebanon’s economy is suffering from slow growth, a high budget deficit and massive debt. Ali Hassan Khalil told reporters after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the government aims to reduce the percentage of the budget […]

ZALKA, Lebanon (Thomson Reuters Foundation) by Heba Kanso – Farah Ballout’s big, infectious smile is the first thing that greets you at her workplace, a cafe in Lebanon with a mission to do more than just brew coffee. Before she was hired the 29-year-old, who suffers from Angelman Syndrome, a genetic disorder that means she has developmental disabilities, had struggled to find work in a country with high unemployment. “I feel like it is a dream that I started here,” Ballout said as tears rolled down her face. “It feels like you are walking into your home – it doesn’t feel like you are going to work.” Almost all the 14 staff at the Agonist coffee shop near Beirut where Ballout has worked for the past five months have special needs, from autism to Down’s Syndrome.

Wassim El Hage set up the business in December to help people with disabilities, who are typically excluded from the workforce in Lebanon. As a social enterprise – a business that aims to do good as well as make profit – it faces even more of a challenge than most start-ups in a country whose economy has been badly hit by years of political instability and a mass influx of refugees. The country is grappling with an unemployment rate of 30 percent and last year, nearly 2,200 businesses closed, according to Lebanon’s chamber of commerce. For El Hage, that was part of the motivation – Lebanon, he said, desperately needs organizations prepared to hire people who would otherwise struggle to find jobs. “It is not my target to make money or to make profit for my own self. My target is to give them back this money [for them] to be integrated, to be independent, to have a real life,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We need it in Lebanon.”

by khaleejtimes.com —Debate about lifting the ban on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has erupted again in the UAE following comments of a popular Emirati commentator and columnist. “It’s so frustrating that Skype is banned in the UAE. How are we meant to conduct interviews and meetings? Such a contradiction in 2021 & 2071 Visions […]