NNA – “Al-Anbaa” newspaper wrote: The Council of Ministers continues to hold sessions to follow up on life and livelihood files, and it held a session yesterday in which it approved financial appropriations for the upcoming parliamentary elections, which is a positive step by the government that proves the intentions of holding the elections, but what is required The actual translation of these intentions by the various forces of authority on the ground, in light of concern regarding any movements under the table away from the spotlight aimed at distorting the constitutional merit in one way or another.
In a related context, the Council of Ministers discussed the electricity file in an electrified session yesterday, which witnessed some discussions when Energy Minister Walid Fayyad presented his plan. Electricity plans are many, and various energy ministers in all governments have submitted projects, but none of them was associated with actual steps, but rather with others whose aim was to smuggle brokerages, deals and treasury advances, and thus waste money.
The presentation of the electricity plan comes within the framework of the EDL’s request for a treasury advance in order to bring in fuel to activate the production plants once more, which has been suspended for a long time and works only at a minimum level to secure only two hours of feeding per day. But the policies of requesting treasury advances are not new, and the experiences are not encouraging, as they were responsible for a large proportion of the waste, and did not secure energy for the Lebanese in a sustainable manner, and the darkness today is only the result of this policy.
Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram revealed that the atmosphere of the government session was positive, and pointed out on the issue of energy that “the draft electricity plan was not distributed to ministers in Arabic, but was distributed in a foreign language, and we believe that this issue is insufficient and needs further study, But until the study was secured in Arabic, the Minister of Energy requested a preliminary presentation on his project, so we listened to Fayyad’s presentation in the session.
In an interview with the electronic newspaper “al-Anbaa”, Bayram indicated that “the experiences of the electricity predecessors are not encouraging, but we are facing a plan, and we have raised questions regarding other offers worthy of research, as there are other valid offers, so it is possible to listen to the World Bank’s observations in this regard.” I also asked the minister regarding the Russian offer, and he said that it is good, but we have no ability to pay, but if the issue is related to payment, this matter can be secured in order to bring regarding a radical change, and people pay if there is a result.
In this context, he added: “Let the Minister of Energy convince us of the plan, and if we find a need for the advance, it can be approved, provided that it is accompanied by steps, feasibility and results,” revealing that “we set a basic rule that was adopted, as we will not allow an increase in tariffs on citizens before Securing electricity, and this topic was approved, because we do not want to burden the citizen
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