Finance Minister in the interim government, Youssef Al-Khalil, has said he is determined to include “reform provisions” in the 2023 draft budget that lay a “brick in the way of progress”, hoping, during his sponsorship of the end-of-budget year meeting held by the Tobacco and Tobacco Administration “Regie” at its headquarters in Hadath, “that its discussions are dominated by the scientific and realistic side, and the political and populist offers are anything but.
During the meeting, which was held under the title “On the way to success, there is no finish line”, Al-Khalil praised “the success of the Regie, in terms of management, organization, effectiveness, sufficiency, productivity and growth ”, recalling that it “finances not only itself, but the public treasury and extends assistance to sister institutions, and beyond So”.
He added: “It is no longer possible to develop public administration performance without strengthening and building effective and sustainable partnerships, so we can only underline the importance of cooperation between all public sector departments as a basis for progress. This cooperation must also be accompanied by cooperation with the private sector and trade unions, as they too play a key role in promoting social dialogue on current issues and challenges, consultation and transfer of technical expertise on issues of common interest, as well as creating a favorable environment that strengthens infrastructure and fights corruption.
As for the head of the “Regies”, his general manager, Nassif Seqlawi, has predicted that “the treasury revenues of the sector will exceed one trillion Lebanese pounds at the end of 2022, having reached 780 billion up to the third quarter, compared to 715 billion pounds in 2021”.
