Decree no. 614 dated October 27th 2008 provided for the distribution of the revenues of the Independent Municipal Fund for 2006 for the amount of LBP290 billion.
Mechanism of revenue distribution
Decree no. 614 determined the mechanism of distribution of such revenues amounting to LBP290 billion as follows:
12% of the fund, LBP34.8 billion, shall be allocated to municipality unions, including LBP20.8 billion distributed based on the number of registered population in the scope of the municipalities of the unions. LBP14 billion should be distributed relatively to all unions based on the number of municipalities that form each union and allocated to expenses for development projects and studies.
5% of the funds remaining (LBP255.2 million) which amounts to LBP12.760 billion, to be allocated to the Civil Defense.
The remaining amount of LBP242.440 billion shall be allocated to municipalities, including LBP218.96 billion distributed to the municipalities based on the number of registered population in the relevant civil status registers. Each municipality shall get 78% of the amount based on the real total of its direct taxes during the two precedent years to the year of distribution (a percentage of 22%).
The remaining sum, LBP24.244 billion, shall be distributed equally to all municipalities, with equal to or less than 4,000 registered populations. Each municipality shall get a share of LBP 36,733,000.
The main problem in this distribution is that it depends essentially on the number of registered population and not the number of residing. Most of the municipality get relatively high amounts compared to actual residents, while others get insignificant amounts.
Number of municipalities and their revenues
The revenues are distributed among the existing municipalities at the date of the issuance of the decree. Therefore, the number of municipalities in Lebanon on October 27th 2008 was 944 municipalities. Table 1 shows the shares of municipalities and municipalities unions by Qada’a (Caza).
| The shares of municipalities and municipalities unions from the distribution of the IMF* revenues for 2006 by Caza | Table 1 | ||||
| Qada’a (Caza) | Number of municipalities | Value of the distributed share (LBP billion) | Value of the shares allocated to development projects (LBP billion) | Value of the shares of the municipalities unions (LBP billion) | Total (LBP billion) |
| Beyrouth | 1 | 42.600 | - | - | 42.600 |
| Baabda | 45 | 12.140 | 1.212 | 909.7 (LBP million) | 14.262 |
| Jbayl | 36 | 3.950 | 1.102 | 1.018 | 6.070 |
| Chouf | 73 | 9.810 | 2.057 | 1.831 | 13.698 |
| Aaley | 55 | 7.200 | 1.616 | 784 (LBP million) | 9.600 |
| Keserouane | 48 | 7.750 | 1.579 | 1.460 | 10.789 |
| Matn | 49 | 16.200 | 1.138 | 1.782 | 19.120 |
| Mohafazah of Mount-Lebanon | 306 | 57.050 | 8.704 | 7.784,7 | 73.538.7 |
| Trablous (Tripoli) | 3 | 13.661 | - | 3.110 | 16.771 |
| Batroun | 24 | 2.772 | 734 (LBP million) | 1.047 | 4.553 |
| Bcharreh | 11 | 2.010 | 257 (LBP million) | 1.026 | 3.293 |
| Zgharta | 31 | 3.469 | 881 (LBP million) | 1.135 | 5.479 |
| Koura | 34 | 3.100 | 1.102 | 1.132 | 5.334 |
| Minieh-Danniyeh | 33 | 5.317 | 844 (LBP million) | 1.537 | 7.698 |
| Mohafazah of North-Lebanon | 136 | 30.323 | 3.818 | 8.987 | 43.128 |
| Mohafazah of Aakkar | 100 | 12.857 | 2.900 | 2.091 | 17.848 |
| Zahleh | 29 | 9.148 | 514 (LBP million) | 1.024 | 10.686 |
| West Beqaa | 29 | 4.610 | 587 (LBP million) | 1.524 | 6.721 |
| Rachaiya | 26 | 2.342 | 808 (LBP million) | - | 3.150 |
| Mohafazah of Beqaa | 84 | 16.100 | 1.909 | 2.548 | 20.557 |
| Baalbek | 58 | 12.840 | 1.175 | 2.086 | 16.101 |
| Hermel | 5 | 1.860 | 110 (LBP million) | 992 | 2.962 |
| Mohafazah of Baalbek - Hermel | 63 | 14.700 | 1.285 | 3.078 | 19.063 |
| Saida | 45 | 9.197 | 1.028 | 1.576 | 11.801 |
| Jezzine | 35 | 2.500 | 1.102 | 1.049 | 4.651 |
| Tyr (sour) | 58 | 9.756 | 1.506 | 2.436 | 13.698 |
| Mohafazah of South Lebanon | 138 | 21.453 | 3.636 | 5.061 | 30.150 |
| Nabatiyeh | 39 | 7.545 | 698 (LBP million) | 2.176 | 10.419 |
| Bent Jbayl | 36 | 7.570 | 550 (LBP million) | 1.239 | 9.359 |
| Hasbaya | 15 | 2.295 | 403 (LBP million) | - | 2.698 |
| Marjaayoun | 26 | 5.700 | 477 (LBP million) | 1.061 | 7.238 |
| Mohafazah of Nabatiyeh | 116 | 23.110 | 2.128 | 4.476 | 29.714 |
| Total | 944 | 218.193 | 24.380 | 34.025,7 | 276.598,7 |
| Source: Information International according to the decree no. 614/2008 | |||||
*Independent Municipal Fund
Major shares
Shares of the Independent Municipal Fund were distributed to 21 municipalities, amounting in total to around LBP87 billion and representing 40% of the lump sum distributed to all municipalities as shown in Table 2, where the municipalitiy of Beyrouth had the major share, followed by Trablous (Tripoli) and Saida respectively.
| Value of the major shares distributed to 21 municipalities | Table 2 | |
| Municipality | Share (LBP billion) | % of the total funds distributed to all the municipalities |
| Beyrouth | 42.6 | 19.52 |
| Trablous (Tripoli) | 10.8 | 4.95 |
| Saida | 3.37 | 1.54 |
| Zahleh | 3.6 | 1.65 |
| Borj Hammoud | 2.6 | 1.19 |
| Mina | 2.5 | 1.14 |
| Jdaidet El Matn - Baouchriyeh - Sadd | 2.3 | 1.05 |
| Ghobayreh | 2.25 | 1.03 |
| Minieh | 1.14 | 0.52 |
| Baalbek | 1.9 | 0.87 |
| Tyr (Sour) | 1.8 | 0.82 |
| Jounieh | 1.6 | 0.73 |
| Sinn El Fil | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Zgharta - Ehden | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Borj El Brajneh | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Hadath | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Hermel | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Nabatiyeh Et Tahta | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Bint Jbeil | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Choueifat | 1.06 | 0.48 |
| Chmistar | 1.03 | 0.47 |
| Source: Information International according to the decree no. 614/2008 | ||
The revenues of the Independent Municipality Fund are the total taxes and fees collected by the state from import fees and duties, among others, and distributed to all municipalities, as mentioned in Table 2.
As for other revenues not covered by this report, they include:
Telephone, water and electricity bills (the revenues of electricity bills are not currently distributed) of households and institutions within the scope of the municipality, where such departments collect the relevant fees to each municipality.
Revenues that are earned by municipalities directly from industrial, commercial, and handicrafts institutions and households within the scope of the municipality.
Fees of construction custody and other services provided by municipalities.
Grants and donations.
Revenues from municipal properties (buildings, lands, organizations).