The Lebanese parliament on 18 July finally passed the salary scale bill for public sector employees which has been pending since 2012. And the next day it passed a number of laws to raise taxes on 20 items and generate the necessary revenue to fund the new salary scale. The cost to the government of this adjustment was initially estimated at around $800mn, but was subsequently raised to $1.2bn to also cover the pensions for retired civil servants.
The tax laws include an increase in VAT from 10% to 11%, a rise in income tax on financial institutions from 15% to 17%, and a hike in the tax rate from 5% to 7% on interest revenue on deposits and banks’ revenue generated from their fixed income portfolio. (CONTINUED - 385 WORDS)
