Tripoli, 27 February 2013:
The General National Congress . . .[restrict]is to set to vote on the LD 66 billion budget on Sunday, according to Congress members and officials.
“The Finance Committee has already made its recommendations,” Congressman Abdullah Al Kabier told the Libya Herald, without stating what those recommendations were but adding that it was expected that the Bill before Congress would be debated and voted on the same day. “It should not take long”, he said.
The budget was initially sent by the government to Congress at the beginning of the month. It was being debated in its first reading by Congress on 2 February when war-wounded revolutionaries demanding better medical treatment and compensation stormed the Congress chamber.
On 21 February, it was announced that following its review by the Finance Committee, it was being sent to other committees for comment.
Following the 2 February occupation of Congress, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said that the government could not operate properly nor fund local government until the budget was not speedily agreed. However, in January former Prime Minister Abdurrahim Al-Kib revealed that there was a LD 41 billion underspend in last year’s budget. This is supposed to be available for spending this year. [/restrict]
