Businessman Hosni Bey said on his official Facebook page that during an interview last night on Libya Al-Ahrar TV, he sought to emphasize that the price gap does not represent fairness in distribution, but rather an economic rent that must be eliminated at its source.
He added that discussions about letters of credit and personal foreign currency allocations often focus on one question: Who gets the official dollar? Is it the well-known merchant, another company, or the citizen? And is the distribution fair and transparent? In his view, this is not the root of the problem.
He explained that if the dollar is sold at the official rate at a price approximately LYD 3 below the market rate, simply obtaining it at the official rate generates an immediate economic rent, regardless of the beneficiary’s identity or the goods they intend to import.
Assuming that approximately $25 billion is sold annually, including $8 billion for personal purposes and $17 billion through letters of credit, the LYD 3 price gap translates into the following implicit economic rent:
- Personal foreign currency allocations: LYD 24 billion.
- Letters of credit: LYD 51 billion.
- Total: LYD 75 billion.
Bey also noted that this figure does not mean every citizen actually pays the same amount in cash. Rather, it represents public value lost or transferred to those benefiting from the preferential exchange rate. If divided mathematically among 9 million citizens, it would amount to approximately LYD 8,300 per person annually in economic value, not as a direct cash tax.
He continued: “This is the heart of the issue. If we give this economic rent to four million citizens, we expand the number of beneficiaries, but we do not eliminate the rent. If we distribute it among 10,000 merchants instead of 1,000, we improve distribution, but we do not address the distortion. Making letters-of-credit procedures more transparent and fair is absolutely necessary, but it addresses who receives the rent, not why the rent exists in the first place.”
Bey added that the real solution is to eliminate the source of these gains by narrowing the gap between the official exchange rate and the rate that balances supply and demand. This would prevent merely gaining access to foreign currency from becoming an activity that generates an almost guaranteed profit.
Under such a system, the true value of foreign currency could accrue to the Central Bank and the public treasury, then be redistributed transparently to citizens through public services, transfers, or investment, rather than leaking to individuals or companies simply because they have privileged access to a rate below the market price.
He concluded: “My message is simple: the problem is not who gets the dollar; the problem is why whoever gets it can make a profit simply by gaining access to it. Transparency is essential, oversight is essential, and trade monitoring is essential, but none of them can compensate for a distorted exchange rate. Change the beneficiary, and the economic rent remains. Eliminate the gap, and the source of the rent disappears.”
