The Chairman of the Financial Commission at the House of Representatives (HoR) Omar Tantoush said the commission is reviewing two budget options: the first from the Presidential Council worth 46 billion dinars and the second is from the Interim Government in east Libya with about 40 billion dinars.
Tantoush said the discussions aim to unite the state expenditure.
“About 14 billion dinars (10.5 billion dollars) are the expected deficit in budget this year.” He added, saying we are also reviewing increasing the salaries of teachers without heavily impacting the state treasury.
“Salaries absorb 65% of the state budget. Presidential Council government salaries are 19.2 billion dinars and those of the Interim Government are 5 billion dinars.” Tantoush explained, saying the salaries’ article in the budget could hit 24.2 billion dinars, yet the issue is still under review.
He indicated that the 1.5 billion dinars’ revenue for Libya expected from the taxes is an exaggerated figure as last year’s figure registered only 845 million dinars.
Meanwhile, HoR Financial Commission discussed last week the budget law for 2018 including the expenditure.
In the meantime, Libya’s financial conditions have been on the slide since the oil production of the country has not reached the normal rates that registered before 2011 about 1.5 million bpd, yet some say that the hike in oil prices could drop the expected deficit in Libya’s budget this year.
