The 2024 Lebanon budget project talks about consumption fees for environmental conservation, specifically an environmental tax on "imported products," which includes a fee on "coffins containing a human body" amounting to 0.002%, according to a Lebanese report on Wednesday.

The Lebanese website "Al-Nashra" mentioned today that the Ministry of Finance, responsible for preparing and submitting the budget, clarified that "this item came as a proposal from the Ministry of Environment and is subject to amendment and study, not final."

The site quoted Environment Minister Nasser Yassine confirming that "there was a mistake, and an employee in the ministry sent an old list to the Ministry of Finance, and we will correct it," noting that "the intention is not to harm the deceased or their dignity but to preserve the environment."

He pointed out that "all products coming from abroad come in cardboard or plastic boxes or others that need processing and recycling, and thus are subject to the tax; when the deceased is brought from abroad, they are placed in a wooden box and then in a coffin, and this box is processed, and the fee is very minimal."

The minister confirmed that "the mistake will be corrected by removing this item from the budget project or from the list that was sent."

Sources addressed the tax value, which reached 2 per thousand of the value of the "product," adding that "the justification for imposing the tax was not explained with valid reasons."

They indicated that "the introduction of a tax requires an explanation of the reason for its proposal and valid reasons to be discussed by the parliamentary council for approval, which did not happen for this item."