The Council of Ministers held an extended session at the Grand Serail to complete discussions on the general budget draft law.

It was decided to move discussions related to the customs dollar to another session, while Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Finance Minister Youssef Khalil for additional details on the prices of all commodities.

The Council of Ministers also postponed the discussion of the electricity treasury advance, at a time when Energy Minister Walid Fayad considered that he had talked about a clear plan that begins with increasing the electricity feeding hours and ends up by increasing the prices. He said that he does not want the electricity advance “if he should beg for having it.”

Despite the meeting that was held in the Financial Public Prosecution, in which it was agreed to be strict in the file of the high prices, and although the Ministry of Economy toured supermarkets in Beirut and wrote seizure reports against violators, chaos still exists. There is no accountability, and no one will halt the merchants from making the citizen a victim of the greed merchants and supermarket owners?

To shed light on this issue, the Head of the Syndicate of Food Importers, Hani Bohsali joined us.

Minister of Agriculture Abbas Hajj Hassan met his Turkish counterpart, were both discussed frameworks for cooperation between the two countries within a joint agricultural agreement.

The two parties stressed the necessity of signing a cooperation protocol in all agricultural fields to exchange experiences. During the talks, the Turkish side presented one million forest plants to the Lebanese delegation, and forest experts from the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture will arrive in Beirut next week with thousands of plants. The Turkish delegation will also inspect the areas that were devoured by forest fires in Lebanon during the past months.