Economists believe that the decision to regulate the production and consumption tax represents a pivotal reform step to address distortions in the currency market and the system of letters of credit, and to link cash support to the real economy and citizens’ actual needs—particularly in the food and pharmaceutical sectors.
The experts explained that the most notable feature of the decision is linking the financing of food and medicine letters of credit to the electronic payment system. This makes citizens’ balances the basis for currency circulation and obliges companies to actually sell goods within the local market in order to be able to request new letters of credit. This effectively ends practices of speculation and hoarding foreign currency outside the economic cycle. They noted that this measure is expected to lead to a noticeable decline in the prices of essential goods and to curb the practice of pricing goods according to the parallel exchange rate despite being financed at a subsidized rate, which directly improves the purchasing power of the dinar without resorting to any administrative adjustment of the exchange rate.
The experts also pointed out that the decision includes a clear punitive mechanism against companies that retained letters of credit abroad without actual imports, by imposing taxes on those letters of credit and canceling those not executed. This enables the state to collect tax revenues on unexecuted 2025 letters of credit instead of continuing the drain on foreign currency.
They added that preliminary estimates indicate that non-compliant companies will incur losses of no less than one billion dollars as a result of ending these practices, in return for achieving direct gains for the public treasury and society—whether through tax revenues, lower prices, or improved availability of goods.
The experts emphasized that the strength of the decision lies in providing foreign currency in a natural and fair manner to all members of society through real consumption, without imposing direct restrictions on citizens or creating alternative informal channels.
They further stressed that the decision maintained preferential treatment for food and medicine letters of credit by reducing the tax burden, while ensuring that support reaches its rightful beneficiaries by linking it to actual sales to citizens.
The experts concluded by affirming that the decision is not a conventional tax measure, but rather an integrated monetary and commercial reform aimed at restoring market balance, protecting the national currency, and transferring support directly from companies to citizens.
