Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab announced Tuesday that the Parliament has suspended discussions around the capital control law until the cabinet settles on a full-fledged reform plan.
Here’s what we know:
• Following a joint parliamentary committee meeting aimed at discussing a proposed capital control law, Bou Saab pointed out in a statement that “there was objections from different members of Parliament” over obliging the central bank’s governor Riad Salemeh to be present at the session “in person,” describing the objection as “shameful.”
• Bou Saab added that the Parliament will be awaiting other finalized reform laws from the government such as the banks restructuring law, saying that “the ball is in their field now … we would like to receive everything in a single package.”
• The capital control draft law aims to legalize and standardize banking restrictions that were put in place at the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019. A capital control law is one of the prerequisites for a preliminary agreement reached with the IMF earlier this year to release billions of dollars in financial assistance to Lebanon.
• The law was last modified earlier this year amid protests from depositors and civil society groups who described it as a “general amnesty project for banks.”
• As the meeting took place earlier today, dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Parliament and in front of several banks in Beirut to protest the proposed capital control law.