A session on capital control was adjourned Wednesday, as the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement’s MPs refused to discuss the draft law.
Depositors and activists had rallied since morning outside Parliament to prevent MPs from attending the session held by the joint parliamentary committees, as they considered that the law will deprive depositors from their rights.
The LF and FPM’s MPs said they need to look into the recovery plan before discussing the capital control draft law.
LF MP George Adwan said that the depositors will bear the cost of $60 billion that will be scrapped from the loans.
He said that the capital control draft law shouldn’t be discussed before approving the recovery plan.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati had said Tuesday that depositors’ rights will be protected.
“This is not true,” Adwan said.
For his part, FPM MP Ibrahim Kanaan asked for discussing the recovery plan in parallel with an amended capital control law, in order to protect the depositors’ right.
“Depositors’ rights are not negotiable,” said Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli, after the session was adjourned.
A session, last week, had ended without an approval and an earlier version of the law had also been rejected, as the committees prompted the government to send an amended version.
The adoption of a capital control law is one of the reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund to financially help crisis-hit Lebanon.