BEIRUT, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese parliament approved Thursday the 2018 state budget after two days of discussions, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) TV reported.
Altogether 50 MPs voted in favor of the law as two MPs voted against and Hezbollah's 11 MPs abstained from voting.
The house held morning and evening sessions for two consecutive days.
Speaker Nabih Berri was alerted about a brief loss of quorum, which prompted him to ask the heads of blocs to call MPs and ask them to attend the session to prevent a possible constitutional challenge against the vote on the budget.
At the beginning of the session, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stressed keenness on approving state budgets "within the constitutional deadlines and in line with the norms."
"No spending has been left out of the state budget and the electricity loan is listed as part of the expenditure," Khalil added.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri meanwhile blamed "the political situation in the country" for the delay in approving this year's state budget.
Responding to criticism from MPs, Hariri said suggestions that the discussion of the budget is being "rushed" ahead of the CEDRE economic conference are "unacceptable."
"We are before a chance to accomplish major projects that have been planned with the aim of developing the country and support meetings are aimed at financing them," Hariri noted.
Hariri added that Lebanon is not a "bankrupted state," and its aim now is to slash expenditure and to balance growth and spending, stressing the reforms "will be painful and if we resort to austerity, it will be in citizens' interest."
