Lebanon's parliament passed a new tax law Oct. 9 to fund raises for its civil servants, after repeated delays and a strike Sept. 25-28 by public sector workers. However, opponents said they will continue to challenge the law.

In July, the Lebanese parliament passed Law No. 46/2017 pertaining to a raise for civil servants — after several years of dithering. This law was accompanied by Law No. 45, which contains a series of taxes to finance the raises, the total cost of which is estimated at between $1 billion and $2 billion a year.

After some legislators appealed in August to the Constitutional Council, it postponed the tax law's implementation. The council then annulled the law Sept. 22, kicking it back to parliament and saying it was unconstitutional for many reasons, including: It violated the non-assignment rule by designating the resulting income for fund pay raises, parliament violated procedure when it approved the legislation and the law would involve double taxation in some cases.

The parliament finally met Oct. 9 and approved an amended version of Law No. 45, though opponents say the new version barely touched on the council's concerns. The law includes 15 fiscal measures, among them a value-added tax increase to 11% (from 10%), increased income tax on financial institutions to 17% (from 15%) and a tax hike on imported alcohol and spirits as well as cigarettes.