The member of the House of Representatives (HoR), Abu Salah Shalabi, says that the HoR has approved the cancellation of the tax imposed on the dollar purchase transactions by a decision from the Speaker by the end of this year, unless the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) has another opinion.
Shalabi added in a statement to Libya Al-Ahrar TV Channel that approving taxes and amending the exchange rate by increasing or decreasing it is the power of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank. He also indicated that the decision to impose a fee on foreign currency was issued at the request of the former Governor of the Central Bank due to the lack of a Board of Directors at the time.
The Central Bank had circulated to commercial banks to implement the decision of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to reduce the foreign currency tax to 15%, calling for facilitating the procedures for opening letters of credit for all purposes and for all goods and services.
HoR Speaker approved on November 20 a new reduction in the fee imposed on the selling price of banks for foreign currencies to 15% for all purposes, instead of 20%. The reduction was the second and done in October after a reduction estimated at 27% that the HoR imposed last March.
The decision stipulated in its first article the necessity of taking into account the granted exceptions and the possibility of reduction according to the circumstances of the state’s revenues, and its second article stipulated the use of revenues generated from the tax fee to cover the expenses of development projects if necessary or to be added to the resources allocated to the bank.
