Kataeb MP Selim Sayegh said that the sessions to discuss the 2024 budget in the parliament are not folkloric because most of  deputies' interventions were permeated with content.

In an interview on the Voice of Lebanon 100.5, Sayegh considered that working on the subject of the budget, holding 26 sessions of the Finance and Budget Committee, and the interventions of MPs in front of public opinion are not only technical interventions, considering that the MP must give his opinion on the financial policy adopted by the government when it draws up any budget.

"It is our duty to be present inside the parliament to discuss the budget and present our opinion on it and criticize it regardless of the result after the vote, because the parliament is the master of itself and every deputy must express his opinion," he added.

He stressed that it is the duty of the state to secure funds, but without corresponding securing certain interests at the expense of others, as this is the concern of balance between sectors and the concept of social justice and the distribution of wealth.

He pointed out that taxes are supposed to be imposed on those who produce huge wealth and not hide behind the imposition of the TVA in a way that it is considered the fairest tax and distributed to all people equally and to all residents in Lebanon.

"The budget comes from the government on the basis of zeroing the deficit. Therefore, it came to the parliament composed digitally, book-wise, and structurally, without addressing basic issues. We have not heard of the issue of returning depositors' money and recovery plans,” he added.

Sayegh was surprised that the government imposes random taxes and considers that every Loyalist who still invests in Lebanon despite incurring losses over the past 4 years must apply laws and standards that were in force before 2018, saying: "This is unacceptable and we have to help everyone who is willing to invest again in the country."

He revealed that the biggest scandal in this budget is the figures given by the government, which are incorrect and inaccurate.

"We feel a kind of 'malice' by some MPs, as they strongly criticize the 'budget' and blow up its foundations at the beginning and then vote for it," he said.

"We are in a vicious circle, but in my opinion, we have to adopt any exchange rate system we want in Lebanon, so how can anyone put a budget with figures whose value and purchasing power he does not know?” he added.

"It is not possible to set real budgets with real fiscal policies without relying in Lebanon on a clear monetary policy that takes into account strict scientific criteria,” he went ion saying.

"A year ago, we demanded through a speech by Kataeb Leader Samy Gemayel, to provide the budget figures in dollars, and the argument at the time was law and national sovereignty, but what they do not know is that we entered the worst dollarization system in the world, meaning that there are more than 85% of our economy has become dollarized and the government has adopted double currency in some budget revenues,” Sayegh Continued.

"Whoever makes money from outside Lebanon while living inside the country must pay the tax in the country of residence, and this is what the international tax system stipulates," he said.

He considered it the duty of the state to help all Lebanese, and said: "Unfortunately, we see that there is a team that supports monopolists and some merchants associated with political events, and that this team appears in return through the screens to delude the people that they are fighting corruption, there is no serious accountability, and I am with the saying 'Where did you get this?'"

"The government could not approach the issue, but left the rampant corruption, clientelism and smuggling, and focused its tax policy on the productive sector in order to collect money and spend it on a sector that did not provide anything, hence the great failure that there is no plan for the future or a recovery plan for the government,” he went on saying.

" If we do not rely on reforming the structure of the public sector in a correct way, there will be reluctance to pay the tax, or perhaps citizens will resort to evading paying it," he stressed.

He believed that the government had to fight the illegal economy, as 40% of domestic production is smuggling and the informal economy, and this means that the government encourages companies to protect themselves politically, resort to illegal commercial intermediaries and sell goods that are competitive in the market, and this is one of the things that the government has not been able to address because its members belong to political groups that protect the illegal economy.

"The great danger is that the Lebanese citizen will remain infinitely adapting despite the tragedies and crises that Lebanon has witnessed," he said, pointing out that the impact of this budget will be to increase the size of illegal trade intermediaries protected by the de facto force.

He considered that the caretaker government did not undertake an economic recovery plan based on the social development policy to go beyond the budget law.

On the issue of the public sector and the compensation of the employees, Sayegh stressed the need for compensation to be based on realistic numbers, considering that the restructuring of the public sector is not solved by one budget, but rather requires several budgets.

On the 2024 budget and its impact on the municipalities, he stressed that the citizens cannot invest in their areas, asking the budget in one of their items to rent their lands for a period of only 4 years is unrealistic, and the problem is that there is an offer of land more than demand for them.

"Expanding the size of the economy by hitting the illegal economy is the most important thing today, and we must exert sufficient efforts to give investors the necessary incentives, because this is what this budget lacks," he said.

"We are not in a country with a directed economy," he said.

"We must preserve Lebanon's free economy. Monopoly, mafia and the illegal economy are all protected, so let the government set a monetary policy and let the citizen reveal the truth," Sayegh concluded.