Constitutional Council Postpones Meeting on Tax Law

A Constitutional Council meeting set to study an appeal of the new tax law that was approved to fund a new wage scale for civil servants and the armed forces was postponed until Monday, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

The meeting was scheduled on Friday but due to travel reasons compelling its head Issam Sleiman to be abroad, it was postponed, added the daily.

“Securing the quorum was not easy because of the positions of three of its members,” said the daily, adding that “some of the council's members have turned off their mobiles and are out of touch.”

Late in August, the Constitutional Council ordered a suspension of the implementation of the tax law that was approved to fund the salary scale for civil servants and the armed forces, a day after ten MPs led by Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel filed an appeal against it.

The suspension is aimed at studying the appeal in form and content.

The Council, Lebanon's highest constitutional court, also decided to hold a September 15 session to “discuss the appeal” and “an open-ended session on September 18 to issue a ruling should the appeal be accepted.”

The new taxes involve hiking the VAT tax from 10% to 11%, fines on seaside violations, and taxes on cement, administrative transactions, sea imports, lottery prizes, tobacco, alcohol, travel tickets, financial firms and banks.

Authorities have argued that the new taxes are necessary to fund the new wage scale but opponents of such a move have called for finding new revenues through putting an end to corruption and the waste of public money.