BUDGET WATCH- Committee-level debate of the FY2018-19 budget resumed yesterday at the House of Representatives, according to Al Mal. The House is looking to complete discussions on the budget and vote on it before the summer recess in July (and the start of the new fiscal year). The deputy chair of the House Planning and Budget Committee, Yasser Omar, had supposedly told Youm7 last week that the committee discussions on the budget were postponed until 5 May on account of the key economic ministers attending the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, which ended yesterday.

The budget is priority number one in parliament, which has postponed discussions on other laws, including the Unified Building Codes, until committee budget discussions of the new spending bill are through, the deputy head of the House Housing Committee told the newspaper. He confirmed previously disclosed plans to follow up the Unified Building Codes with another temporary law that would settle building code violations. We noted last month that committee agreed to set the fee for building owners and developers to settle building code violations at 10% of the property’s market price.