More than two dozen municipalities from the South and Nabatieh declared Thursday that Interior Minister Elias Murr had no right to withhold their dues from the Independent Municipal Fund (IMF).
The Ghazieh municipality was the site of a meeting where representatives of 25 municipalities expressed their outrage at the silence of government officials in response to the interior minister’s “illegal” suspension of their IMF payments.
Municipalities in various parts of the country have complained in recent weeks about the holding up of funds.
The government directly collects municipal taxes on items such as electricity, water and other utilities and places them in the IMF for later redistribution to the municipalities.
The funds are meant to be channeled toward basic public services in the areas of collection.
“The municipalities’ allotment from the IMF constitute between 50-60 percent of their revenues, without which they cannot perform their civic duties,” said a statement.
It added that during former Prime Minister Salim Hoss’ administration, the dues were paid in line with the law, “but during Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s administration, the interior minister suspended payments with the dire economic situation offered as the only excuse.”
The statement cited IMF decree 1917, which specifies that the collected tax is to be deposited in the IMF at the Central Bank and redistributed so that the Unions of Municipalities receives 25 percent and individual municipalities receive 75 percent.
“Nowhere in the law does it mention any authority that is exercised by the interior minister on how and how much to disperse from the fund,” the statement said. It also questioned “why the economic crisis has not affected either the salaries nor the secret monthly expenditures of MPs and ministers.”

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