It is a given that citizens are required to pay taxes and public fees. These payments are not a mere formality; they are a civic duty. Through them, the state funds public projects, maintains infrastructure, and provides essential services.
In return, the state is expected to meet its obligations: ensuring medical and hospital care for those without private insurance, delivering reliable electricity and water, maintaining roads and sewage networks, and sustaining the basic infrastructure that underpins daily life.
Yet, in Lebanon’s current reality, the equation feels unbalanced. Citizens continue to pay taxes and fees covering electricity, water, sewage, sidewalks, and more, without receiving the very services those payments are meant to secure.
Worse still, since the financial collapse of 2021, these taxes and fees have not only persisted but have risen sharply. And what do citizens get in exchange? Dry taps, forcing them to purchase costly water from private tankers. Hours of power cuts, leaving them dependent on expensive generator subscriptions. Damaged cars from roads riddled with potholes. And an ever-growing list of out-of-pocket expenses for services the state is meant to provide.
In effect, citizens are paying twice, sometimes more, for the same services: once to the state, and again to private providers.
This raises uncomfortable but important questions:
- Does a citizen have the right to withhold payment when the state fails to deliver?
- Can the state still claim its “rights” if it has neglected its duties?
- Is non-payment in such circumstances an act of defiance or a legitimate stand?
- Most importantly, how can citizens compel the state to honor its obligations?
These are not abstract debates. They cut to the heart of the social contract between citizen and state, one that, in Lebanon today, feels dangerously one-sided.