The joint parliamentary committees continued, in their session yesterday, headed by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Elias Bou Saab, in the presence of the Minister of Finance in the caretaker government, Youssef Al-Khalil, to discuss the “Capital Control” draft law.
After the session, Bou Saab pointed out that “the discussion was deep and there are data that have changed since the start of the discussion of the project and the imposition of a new fait accompli, for example, the new money was one thing and became another thing, so everyone started resorting to fresh money and we are forced to take into account the changes and amend In particular, the required exceptions.
He added, “We limited the transfers abroad to matters related to external medicine (hospital operations that cannot be performed in Lebanon) and the issue of students enrolled in universities outside Lebanon. We also do not want to deprive students inside Lebanon of getting their money. There is an item that we have not reached yet, and it is related to withdrawals to benefit from medicine and education at home, and the mechanism and ceilings will be studied in a rational manner following obtaining the realistic numbers, so that the banks will not be able to exploit the money transfer law for students abroad, for example, to smuggle sums of money.
And he stressed the necessity of approving “Capital Control” to preserve equality regarding the rights of depositors, adding, “We do not accept that it becomes a” hierarchy.” There are matters dealt with by “Capital Control”. We asked to study other laws and restructure the banks before presenting them to the general assembly. There is a general understanding that we have a clear picture of all these laws.
In response to a question regarding the withdrawal ceiling, he said, “We decided to come up with realistic numbers. We agree that there will be a specific ceiling for withdrawals. As for the powers of the committee, we have approved them in Article Three, and there are matters that require the approval of the Council of Ministers, and we have linked them to the budget and the laws that will come to Parliament. We are working to ensure that there is strict control over the exchange mechanisms.
And he emphasized the work “to preserve bank deposits and their value,” pointing to “an injustice practiced by banks once morest citizens.” the banker, the depositors’ money will also go. And our direction is not to give any bank a patent instrument, and we say to him that I took the money of the recipients and “May God forgive what was past” and start over.
