Lebanon PM, Speaker exchange accusations over 2010 budget

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Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri exchanged accusations over the 2010 budget during Tuesday’s parliamentary session

In response to statements of MPs, Hariri said parliamentary committees should speed up adoption of the budget so that the cabinet could act.

Berri, however, snapped back at the premier, saying that the budget hadn’t reached parliament in time. “It should have reached in October 2009 so that deliberations could have ended in January.”

On the issue of electricity, Hariri did not object to power cuts from the homes of politicians. He made his remark in response to Hezbollah’s MP Hassan Fadlallah who called for to cutting off electricity from officials for one day at least so that they could feel the suffering of the people.

The speaker also had a word to say on Hariri’s statement, telling lawmakers that scores of projects and proposals are awaiting appropriate measures to find solutions to the electricity crisis.

According to Ya Libnan energy consultant ” Fadlallah’s statement is amusing since Hezbollah supporters have not paid for electricity charges for several years”. …”Lebanon ‘s utility company has not been able to collect electricity charges because their collectors have continuously been subjected to attacks by Hezbollah and Amal supporters”. He added : “The shortfall in collections has forced Lebanon to subsidize the electric utility company Electricité Du Liban EDL resulting in huge state budget deficits . “

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6 responses to “Lebanon PM, Speaker exchange accusations over 2010 budget”

  1. Leborigine Avatar
    Leborigine

    I do not understand. Who runs Electricite Du Liban. If no one is paying, then cut the power off. Is it that hard. Are we still living in that day and age. Is my country run by absolute morons???!!

    1. nice post leborigine you took the words out of my keyboard.

  2. ya mr fadlallah now you gonna tell us you have power cut in your house and you do fell with the public as the report said and all the lebanese now it the shia areas don;t pay for the electricit because its coming from israel and they don;t like to deal with isreal you are so smart you kill someone and you go to his funeral to mon him but it dosen;t seem its working for you anymore

  3. i just wanna add that hypocrisy runs deep in lebanese politics.

    you have HA telling politicians to cut off electricity. why dont you tell your constituents to pay their bills. what a load of garbage.

    if everybody pays their bills like my family does, we wouldnt be in this mess.

    the day will come when HA is dismantled and the LAF will march in to areas collecting debts.

    by then, hopefully electricite du liban would have revamped its network and can easily prevent the theft of electricity by monitoring lines like they do here in canada

  4. Jean Haddad Avatar
    Jean Haddad

    Tony, in Lebanon no one likes the word monitoring. Every MP in Lebanon has small side business to sell private electricity, tv cable, and of course for courier companies too. Post Canada has failed in Lebanon to structure and improve poste du Liban. So no one can cut power on anyone coZ every Lebanese is connected to government players they always seek for wassta. Welcome to Lebanon!

  5. hi jean, this is ridiculous man. here in canada BC Hydro can see on ots monitors where thee is a surge in the line that means that electricity is being diverted and they prosecute people stealing electricity. its actually a federal offense here and the offender may face prison terms.

    waasta ya waasta. i forgot about those buti think prophet was talking about paying his bill and he had to pay a waasta to actually pay a late bill and ended up being more than the bill itself.

    i think it was prophet.

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