BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese government approved a series of reforms on Monday in a bid to calm the anger of protesters who demand the departure of the entire political class as corrupt.

These reforms were announced in detail in an official document read out by the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, Judge Mahmoud Makiya.

On the fiscal front, the government has approved:

Budget with a deficit of 0.6%, without new or additional taxes.

2. The contribution of the banking sector and the Central Bank to reduce the deficit by $ 3.3 billion during 2020, and increase the tax on the profits of banks.

3- Reducing the salaries of current and former presidents, ministers and deputies by 50%.

4. Reducing the budgets of the Council for Development and Reconstruction, the Displaced Fund and the Council of the South by 70%.

Reduce less than $ 700 million in electricity shortages.

6. Conducting a study on partial or total privatization of many public institutions and sectors, including the mobile phone sector, the port of Beirut, the Casino of Lebanon and the Middle East Airlines.

On the social side:

7. Adoption of the law guaranteeing old age before the end of the current year.

8. Allocate an additional $ 13 million to the program to support the poorest families.

9. A US $ 100 million World Bank loan to be approved shortly for this program, at 1% interest, repayable over a period of 30 years.

10. Allocate $ 160 million to support housing loans.

11. Approving the draft amnesty law before the end of the current year.

In the field of combating corruption:

12. Prepare a draft law for the recovery of looted funds.

13. Approving the law establishing the National Authority for Combating Corruption before the end of this year.

14. Install detectors at border crossings to combat smuggling and tighten penalties on smugglers.

Infrastructure and institutions:

15. Immediately abolish the Ministry of Information and a number of public institutions.

16. Appointing the regulators of electricity, telecommunications and civil aviation, and the Beirut Stock Exchange.

17. Appointment of the Board of Directors of the Electricity of Lebanon, and "accelerate the commissioning of the electricity production plants and the completion of the binding" within four months.

18. Approval of the first phase of the Cedar Conference within three weeks, which is considered the main driver of economic growth and opened the door to job creation for young people during the next five years.

19. Launching of road development projects at the northern and southern entrances to Beirut.