The People’s Assembly referred the government’s financial statement and the bill of the state general budget of 2018 to the Budget and Accounts’ Committee to be studied and then approved.

The Assembly held its weekly session on Tuesday, headed by Speaker Hamouda al-Sabbagh.

Responding to the inquires of MPs on the government’s financial statement, Finance Minister Mamoun Hamdan affirmed that the government is going ahead in supporting martyrs’ families and offering job opportunities for them, adding that a sum of SYP 4.5 billion was allocated fund projects that provide job opportunities to the martyrs’ families.

He added that increasing salaries and wages means increasing the prices of oil productions, saying “the government refuses to increase the price of oil even if it was for increasing salaries.”

The minister noted that the government is working hard to develop the mechanism of delivering subsidies to the deserved citizens to stop any manipulation, losses or smuggling.

He asserted that the government is currently working on re-studying and setting up the tax system so as to achieve tax justice.