Speaker Nabih Berri has scheduled a joint parliamentary committee session on Dec. 1 to discuss the draft capital control law. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday scheduled a Dec. 1 joint session for Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee and Administration and Justice Committee to discuss the long delayed capital control law.
Here’s what we know:
• The capital control law is a key demand of the International Monetary Fund in its negotiations with the Lebanese government to unlock a financial rescue package for the crisis-hit country.
• The law remains unpassed more than two years after the banking crisis erupted in 2019. In the absence of such a law, commercial banks have imposed ad hoc controls on account holders’ access to their deposits. Finance and Budget Committee member MP Alan Aoun (FPM/Baabda) told L’Orient Today that the draft law was finalized by the Administration and Justice Committee in June. Billions of dollars have reportedly been transferred abroad since the early days of the financial crisis in the absence of a capital control law.
• The law was scheduled to be voted on by Parliament late October but was sent back to committee level for further discussion. Aoun explains that this was due to the IMF’s demand for several amendments in the law.
• The joint committees had been scheduled to meet last week, but the session was canceled. According to Aoun, the cancelation was due to a conference abroad that Berri had to attend.