BEIRUT, May 22 (AFP) - Lebanon will introduce value added tax from January 1, 2001 in preparation for entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and European partnership, Finance Minister Georges Corm said. After a meeting with European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts, Corm estimated that VAT would rake in the equivalent of three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) during its first five years, newspapers reported Saturday. He said introducing VAT has become inevitable as Lebanon has applied for WTO membership and will sooner or later join the partnership between the EU and other Mediterranean states which requires a gradual reduction of customs duties towards the introduction of free trade. Lebanon's endemic economic problems have gradually forced up customs duties which now bring in 46 percent of revenue. Prime Minister Salim Hoss, who stated his intention to introduce VAT after forming his government last December, raised taxes in April on a range of imported goods. Faced with the task of reducing a budget deficit of 15 percent of GDP and vast foreign debt, Hoss has erected VAT and privatisation as the twin pillars of his economic policy. Corm said the VAT project would be elaborated during the next three months and a draft law sent to parliament before the end of this year, with all administrative preparations completed by autumn 2000, newspapers reported Saturday. But radical administrative reforms will be needed to introduce the new tax in a public sector plagued with corruption and shunned by young professionals because of low government salaries.  