Prior to the cabinet meeting scheduled-today, a two-person meeting will join the Minister of Finance, Rayya El Hassan and Minister of Telecom, Charbel Nahas, in an effort to reach common points between both ministers on several disagreements.

Nahas has proposed an economic paper for the cabinet, where he asked to set a ceiling for the government’s borrowing, but El Hassan, and other ministers, rejected on this proposal. El Hassan has repeatedly stressed he need to keep cash in reserve in case any unexpected shock shakes the economy, and said during meetings that the Ministry has no control over interest rates or changes in global markets.

On the other hand, PM Hariri, and other ministers, questioned Nahas for not sending the surplus of the Ministry of Telecom, to the account of the Ministry of Finance; but Nahas said that the law abides him to transfer the surplus at the end of the fiscal year.
 
MP, Boutros Harb, said on Monday that the political divergence on the draft budget is “sad”, expecting the government to conclude talks on budget in one final meeting, in addition to today’s session.

Ministers approved 22 draft budget-articles out of 130, and discussions today will revolve around the remaining articles. Among the approved articles, are all individual ministerial budgets, including that of the Ministry of Water and Power which is one of the biggest with provisions of $2 billion aimed at building new power plants to boost power output.

President Michel Sleiman, expressed the need to approve the 2010 draft budget and send it to parliament as quickly as possible, so that the 2011 draft budget is completed before end of September.