Last week, President Michel Aoun signed a law that increases public salaries and taxes which the Lebanese Parliament has approved of last month. The tax hikes have been proposed to increase the salaries in the public sector which resulted in many
protests that took place in Beirut
.
10 MPs are appealing the law
MP Sami Gemayel believes that the increase in the wage scale should not harm the citizens’ financial state. Gemayel and nine lawmakers filed an appeal which was signed by himself and nine MPs, who are: Nadim Gemayel, Samer Saade, Elie Marouni, Fadi Al Haber, Dori Chamoun, Butros Harb, Khaled Al Daher, Fouad Al Saad, and Salim Karam. The Council will check the appeal on Thursday. The tax will increase from 10% to 11%, which will eventually lower the purchasing power of citizens from 10% to 20%. In addition to that, school tuitions are planned to increase by 27%. All of these increases will cause more poverty. There are two opinions on this matter. The authority believes that this increase is necessary since the government is not able to fund the wage scale. However, these MPs believe that these changes will cause more harm to Lebanese citizens.