Joint committees convene in key session over capital control law

Joint committees convene in key session over capital control law

Joint parliamentary committees convened Tuesday in Parliament to resume the discussion of a capital control draft law, including one of its most important clauses.

A clause about forming a special committee to supervise the implementation of the law is to be discussed today or tomorrow, as the discussion will resume during a second session on Wednesday.

The committees had convened in the last weeks, finalizing 17 clauses, amid protests by depositors and some MPs.

Depositors and activists rallied again near Parliament to protest the law.

The adoption of a capital control law is one of the reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund to financially help crisis-hit Lebanon, but some consider it unfair to the depositors, who consider the law as "a veiled amnesty law" for "the thieves of public and private money."

Since October 2019, banks have been imposing informal capital controls, barring depositors from reaching into their dollar accounts, as well as stopping transfers, amid a severe financial crisis.

The capital control law will impose official restrictions on transfers and withdrawals.

MPs from Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces said they will defend the depositors' rights.

"It is possible to make drastic amendments to the law," Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said.