106 Councils, 11 Governorates
The Minister of Local Administration and Environment, Mohammad Anjarani, has approved the 2026 budgets of 106 city councils spread across 11 governorates. The approvals were issued as a series of decisions between 14 May and 1 June 2026, a span of roughly three weeks.
The decisions cover operating budgets that set out each council's revenue and spending allocations for the year. Once endorsed, they allow administrative units to plan and deliver local services under defined figures rather than provisional ones.
Where the Approvals Landed
The largest single share went to Rural Damascus, where 22 councils had budgets approved, followed by Deir ez-Zor with 19 and Idlib with 14. Aleppo accounted for 12, Hama for 11, and Homs for 10.
Those six governorates together make up 88 of the 106 approvals, with the remaining decisions distributed among the other governorates. The measure therefore reaches across most of the country's local administrative map.
Binding Allocations
Officials described the approved budgets as binding financial instruments that guide annual planning, prioritize expenditure, and govern project implementation at the local level. Each council is expected to operate within its set allocations through the year.
The stated aim is to let administrative units function with clear figures so they can meet the service and administrative priorities tied to residents' day-to-day needs, from municipal upkeep to local projects.
One Council in Focus
Among the approvals, the budget for the Al-Foua city council was endorsed with its fixed expenditure and revenue items kept within established allocations, a sign that even smaller councils are being brought into the formal annual framework.
The wave of approvals comes as local bodies move to formalize their finances for the year, a step that shapes how municipal funds are raised and spent in each governorate and sets the baseline against which spending will be measured.