Publication: Lebanon : Electricity Sector Public Expenditure Review
Date
2008-01
ISSN
Published
2008-01
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The Lebanese electricity sector is at
the heart of a deep crisis. The sector is unable to supply
the reliable electricity needed by homes, offices and
industry. It is a massive drain on government finances,
crowding out more valuable expenditures on education,
infrastructure, social protection, and health, and putting
macroeconomic stability at risk. The sector accumulates huge
debt with little to show for it, and those who are least
able to provide for themselves suffer the consequences most.
The state of the electricity sector symbolizes to the public
Lebanon's profound challenges of governance, inclusion
and accountability. This report includes detailed
calculations on these estimated high costs to the public.
This additional spending and revenue loss has an obvious
negative impact on these consumer categories, but also makes
implementation of other macro-critical, non electricity
sector reforms, difficult; as consumers have difficulty
absorbing increased overall spending (for example tax
increases). As such, this report presents an analysis of
possible demand and supply scenarios for the future, and
lays out options for the Government to consider in improving
service and reducing the overall costs. Each option is
presented with a savings potential, and time-line for
implementation. Ultimately, however, the Government will
have to consider how to sequence the reforms, in particular,
the invariable tension between waiting with the much needed
tariff level and structure adjustments for an observable
improvement in service delivery versus starting the
adjustments immediately and working on service improvements
in parallel.
Citation
“World Bank. 2008. Lebanon : Electricity Sector Public Expenditure Review. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/60f36ce9-a1db-5cf6-b082-9b71b8f6601f License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”