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Lebanon’s Finance Minister Yassin Jaber on Tuesday defended the government’s decision to impose additional fees to finance a pay raise for public sector employees.
This move drew objections from transport unions, consumer advocates, and labor groups as taxi drivers temporarily blocked major roads in Beirut.
Taxi drivers temporarily blocked major roads in Beirut, reflecting growing anger over measures critics say will deepen hardship for ordinary people.
The official National News Agency quoted Bassam Tleis, head of the federations and unions of the land transport sector, as saying the sector supports wage improvements but rejects placing new burdens on citizens and transport workers.
He warned that fuel is an essential commodity and that any rise in its price or in the value-added tax would immediately affect transport costs and the prices of goods.
“What is needed is to find fair alternatives that do not come out of people’s pockets,” he said.
The Consumer Protection Association said the authorities’ plan would “entrench the impoverishment of the majority of the Lebanese people,” as households already face severe economic strain.
Lebanon’s crisis has left most of the population living below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
The General Confederation of Lebanese Workers held an emergency meeting announcing its rejection of the government’s measures.
It warned the decision could lead to portraying wage beneficiaries as if they were responsible for new burdens and the inflation expected to follow, harming Lebanon’s most vulnerable groups.
Jaber said the measures were necessary to preserve the state’s “financial balance” amid a severe shortage of revenue.
He said raising public sector salaries, including for retirees, would impose additional burdens of $620 million.
“Today we are very keen to maintain financial balance, because any disruption to it will lead us into a crisis,” he said.
The minister added that the number of public sector employees is close to 320,000, including 120,000 in the army and security forces, in addition to tens of thousands of retirees.
The head of the public sector employees’ association, Walid Jaaja, told AFP that salaries will rise by 28% compared with levels before the 2019 crisis.
However, he said the raise would be eroded by higher gasoline prices and VAT increases.
Financial adviser Michel Qazzah warned the measures would fuel inflation and force the central bank to increase liquidity in circulation.
Lebanon has been suffering an economic collapse since 2019, leaving most citizens unable to access bank deposits, accompanied by a sharp depreciation of the local currency and the lifting of subsidies on many essential goods.
The government estimates financial losses at around $70 billion, a figure experts say has continued to grow after six years without solutions.
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