Lebanon’s joint parliamentary committees approved Tuesday an advance payment for Electricité du Liban (EDL).
The committees voted to have a $200 million payment disbursed by the Central Bank of Lebanon to enable continued supply of electricity in Lebanon.
The session commenced at 11 AM to study the proposal to secure the required sum for EDL (LBP 1,500 billion) and the two law proposals related to recovering the stolen public funds.
During the session, MP Anwar El-Khalil proposed a payment of LBP 300 billion instead of LBP 1,500 billion, and $200 million ended up being approved, despite the objection of the MPs of the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party.
The controversy surrounding an advance payment to EDL emerged from the shortage of U.S. dollars, considering the crisis that Lebanon is going through.
Notably, MP Ali Khreis said before the session started that when asked by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri if the Banque du Liban had the necessary foreign currency to cover the payment, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh had answered: “I don’t have a single dollar.”
The decision to provide an advance comes a week after caretaker Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar warned that Lebanon would witness “total darkness” by the end of March if 1,500 billion Lebanese pounds were not secured for EDL before then.
