The joint parliamentary committees held a session yesterday, chaired by Vice-President Elias Bou Saab, in the presence of the Finance Minister in the interim government, Dr Youssef Al-Khalil. Discussion of the “Capital Control” bill continued. At the end of the session, Bou Saab intervened, specifying that “the committees continued, in their session, the discussion on the accelerated bill aimed at establishing exceptional and temporary controls on bank transfers and cash withdrawals (control of )”. The discussion was deep and there is data that has changed since the beginning of the discussion of the project AND the imposition of a new fait accompli, for example, that new money was one thing and became another, so everyone started to resort to “fresh money”. We are forced to take the changes into account and have specially changed the requested exceptions.
He added, “We have limited overseas transfers to matters related to external medicine (hospital operations that cannot be performed in Lebanon) and the problem of students enrolled in universities outside Lebanon. We also don’t want to deprive students inside Lebanon of getting their money. And there’s one voice that we haven’t reached yet, and it’s related to withdrawals to benefit from medicines and home education.
He underlined that “preserving our universities and schools is a priority, because if education collapses, the homeland and citizens cannot be built, and the question of medicine and hospitalization is of equal importance”.
Bou Saab underlined that “the approach of some deputies has become almost unanimous, to give citizens the right of withdrawal in matters of hospitalization and medical treatment at home and abroad, and the mechanism and the ceilings will be studied in a rational way after obtaining realistic numbers”.
He said: “We will study and discuss how to put a ceiling through the capital control law, so that banks cannot exploit the funds transfer law for overseas students, for example, to smuggle money.”
And he stressed the need to approve the “Capital Controls” to preserve equality regarding the rights of depositors, remarking: “The opposition of some fellow deputies, and today I think they are convinced. There was consensus on some of the draft articles. And the law will be enacted differently and not as it was sent.
He added: “We do not accept that it becomes a ‘hierarchy’. There are issues dealt with by ‘Capital Control’. We have 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. Bou Saab underlined that “the fellow deputies have decided to postpone the session until after the holidays”.
Bou Saab indicated, “If I can make an effort to bridge the views between Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the ‘Strong Lebanon’ bloc, I will not fail.” In response to a question about the cap on withdrawals, he said: “We have decided to give realistic numbers. We agree that there will be a specific cap on withdrawals.
He underlined the work “to preserve bank deposits and their value”, indicating “an injustice practiced by banks against citizens”. The banking sector will also go, the money of depositors. And our direction is not to give any bank a patent tool, and we tell them, I took the depositors’ money, and, “May God forgive what was past,” and start over.
