The National Bloc: The joint parliamentary committee’s failure to pass the “Capital Control” law does not absolve the regime of its responsibility for smuggling $10 billion

The failure to pass the “Capital Control” bill proposal in the joint parliamentary committees’ session does not absolve the regime of its responsibility in the blatant complicity with those who “smuggled their money outside the country” including politicians, bankers and economic influencers, at the expense of the depositors' “reap of life” savings.  

If the capital control law was endorsed, the banking, financial and political system would be granted a general amnesty for the crimes against depositors during the past two years. A report issued by the global rating agency (Moody’s) revealed that about $10 billion in bank deposits have been released in the past two years. It is believed that most of the transfers belong to political, economic and influential figures and nearly half of them were transferred during the first weeks of the outbreak of the monetary and financial crises.

This bill vests Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh enormous discretionary authority to dispose of people's money. This is a conspicuous attempt by the mafia and the militia to evade responsibility according to the logic of “May God forgive the past” and to tighten the Governor’s and the banks’ grip over the remaining depositors’ money without any controls secured by the Lebanese constitution and international laws.

The draft law is only hypocritical and nominal unrelated to Capital Control laws and if it had been approved by Parliament, it would have strongly legalized the illegal practices committed by the Central Bank and Banks over the past two years.

By way of comparison, both Greece and Cyprus imposed a “Capital Control” law at the onset of the crisis, and similarly it should have been approved in Lebanon since the summer of 2019 with the emergence of the first signs of dollar scarcity.

The system did not succeed in this scandalous attempt to circumvent the International Monetary Fund and public opinion, and today it is weaker than imposing such a law.

Fortunately, the regime failed to no avail in a scandalous attempt to circumvent the International Monetary Fund and public opinion, and today it definitely lacks the power to impose such a law. Finally, such an attempt, however, should be an opportunity to build a free and fair economy that necessitates first and foremost replacing the ruling regime with an authority capable of restoring the confidence of the international community and investors.