House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday voiced commitment to the long awaited salary scale, saying that “the wage scale is a right … which the Parliament has granted to citizens.”

“It is necessary to secure the funding of the salary scale in order to create a balance between revenues and expenditures,” Speaker Berri said during a chat with accredited media representatives to Msaileh in south Lebanon.

The speaker slammed a decision made by the Constitutional Council to annul the tax hike law which is aimed at funding the wage scale.

Berri defied the statement which proclaimed that the Parliament does not have the right to legislate taxes outside the framework of the state budget, bringing to attention that the Parliament has earlier approved in its recent session the petroleum tax law.

He considered what happened as an infringement on the Parliament, an encroachment upon the Speaker’s authority, and a violation of the Taif Agreement.

Berri stressed meanwhile, that the salary scale should be paid to its recipients.

Answering a question about communication with Syria, the Speaker deemed coordination between the two countries as “necessary and falls in Lebanon’s interest”, particularly in terms of agricultural exports and the Syrian refugees’ crisis.

Berri urged all parties to remain vigilant in the face of any attempt to tamper with the internal security and stability.

Source: Agencies