The Head of the High Council of State (HCS), Mohammed Takala, rejected the amendment issued by the House of Representatives (HoR) to the law prohibiting usurious transactions on December 25, 2023, reiterating his call to the Speaker of the HoR, Aqila Saleh, to adhere to the rules of managing the political process at this stage.
Takala said in a letter addressed to the HoR Speaker on Monday that law No. (35) of 2023 amending the law prohibiting "usurious transactions is among those legislations that were issued in violation of the Constitutional Declaration, the Libyan Political Agreement, and their appendixes.
Takala reminded the HoR Speaker of his previous correspondence regarding his rejection of all legislation issued by him, in which the required consensuses were not taken into account, as per the Constitutional Declaration, the Libyan Political Agreement, and the decisions thereafter.
He reiterated his previous demand for Saleh to stop issuing any legislation under any pretext without agreeing on it with the HCS, asking him to take into account what the existing conditions entail and what they require.
A few days ago, the HoR circulated to the Central Bank of Libya and the judicial and supervisory authorities Law No. (35) of 2023, issued on December 25, 2023, amending some provisions of Law No. (01) of 2013 regarding the prevention of usurious transactions.
Law No. (35) of 2023 prohibits Islamic banks from dealing with usurious interest in all their transactions. They are also prohibited from practicing banking activities and services that violate the provisions of Islamic Sharia, but the law permits commercial banks in Libya to operate in a dual system: the Islamic banking and the traditional banking systems.
