Exclusive.. “Muhammad Al-Senussi”: Al-Kabir repeats the mistakes of past years.. These are the dangers of imposing a tax on the exchange rate.. and the reasons for closing the personal items system

A faculty member at the University of Misrata, “Mohamed Al-Senussi,” spoke to the Sada Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper exclusively, regarding the reason for closing the personal items system, where he said: It appears that the governor of the Central Bank set a monthly ceiling for personal items that may not exceed $800 million per month, and it seems that he allocated the same value to the appropriations so that The total monthly ceiling for foreign currency sold by the Central Bank is one billion and 600 million, because the Central Bank, according to rumors, allocated $15 billion this year for credits and personal items, noting that what was sold last year exceeded $21 billion, according to Central Bank data.

Adding: Unfortunately, the Governor of the Central Bank is committing the same mistakes he made in the years from 2014 to 2018 by granting the dollar at the official price to some merchants while the citizen is forced to buy it at the black market price expected to increase further due to his ill-considered and illogical decisions. Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of the February appropriations are the same. The names that benefited from the credits for the years when the official price was 1.50 and the black market price reached 10 dinars,
We are surprised here at how much capital is the company that receives credits worth $20 million in less than a month? That is, the equivalent of 100 million dinars.. Shouldn’t the Attorney General intervene and follow up on this matter?? .

He also said: We are also surprised by setting a ceiling for personal belongings. According to Central Bank data, the number of registered citizens is 700,000 citizens, while those who actually shipped are only 200,000 citizens, which means that there are 500,000 citizens who want to obtain hard currency, perhaps for tourism, Umrah, or importing a specific commodity. And now they must wait until the end of the month or buy from the black market, which will lead to an increase in the exchange rate on the black market, and this is completely unjustified and unacceptable. What prevents the Central Bank from charging the value to all these people? In the end, they will not be able to charge again until the end of the year. This is because this value of $4,000 is an annual value.

Regarding the news related to adjusting the exchange rate, Al-Senussi said: I think that adjusting the exchange rate is unlikely in light of the presence of the current governor because he is not convinced of adjusting the exchange rate and is more convinced of placing quantitative restrictions on hard currency as he did in past years, although he praised the decision. Adjusting the exchange rate in his message to the Prime Minister, where he said that this adjustment contributed to achieving monetary stability in the years 2021 and 2022. Therefore, I believe that the Central Bank must at least follow the announced special rate policy in order to be able to eliminate the black market, provided that the dollar is provided. For everyone at this price and does not repeat the same mistake that occurred when the price was adjusted to 4.50, as quantitative restrictions and irrational conditions on credits continued.

He continued speaking: As for the news being circulated about adding a tax to the exchange rate, and not amending the official rate, this is a wrong decision and will lead to increased spending because the government, whether the government of the East or the West, if it imposes this tax will obtain revenues that will make it spend more, as happened in the year 2018. .

Al-Senussi continued by saying: Solving economic problems requires a set of steps, the most important of which are:
1: That the House of Representatives approves a budget for the government, and spending is only based on the approved budget, in which spending is rationalized and the focus is on increasing investment.
2: Stop the process of exchanging oil for fuel, and that fuel is purchased according to the approved budget and all revenues from the sale of oil are transferred to the Central Bank.
3: The Central Bank must increase the value of personal items to $10,000 as it was last year and allow everyone who requests this value to obtain the value without a monthly ceiling.
4: The Oil Corporation should make redundant efforts to increase oil production to greater levels.
5: The Audit Bureau and the Public Prosecutor must take greater and stronger measures to hold accountable everyone involved in corruption operations that have filled the pages of the Audit Bureau’s reports for the past years, and the judiciary must hold accountable everyone who is found guilty, because punishment for these will deter those who think about theft and corruption.

You can also read the news in the source from the Sada Economic newspaper