Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday unanimously approved a government bill amending the law on transactions in foreign exchange.

The bill liberalises current transactions. This means that anyone resident in Mozambique will be able to pay for goods and services from abroad in foreign currency, without needing authorisation from the Bank of Mozambique.

Thus any Mozambican who, for example, has children studying abroad will be able to pay their school fees from his or her account in any of the commercial banks, without a time-consuming request for approval from the central bank.

Speaking to reporters, Finance Minister Manuel Chang pointed out that any Mozambican abroad can pay for goods and services with debit cards issued by Mozambican banks. So why should he need authorisation to make exactly the same payments when in Mozambique?

This liberalization does not apply to capital transfers, which will still be subject to authorisation from the central bank.

The bill also makes it compulsory for the revenue from the export of goods and services, and from any Mozambican investment abroad, to be repatriated to Mozambique. Chang told the Assembly this measure was necessary "to strengthen exchange rate stability".

Deputies pointed out that illegal money changers, particularly in border areas, often operate under the noses of the police. According to Virginia Videira, chairperson of the Assembly's Plan and Budget Commission, when police offices were asked about this, they replied that they did not know that such money changing was illegal.

Chang said that, under the old legislation, the body with the power to repress illegal trade in foreign currency was the Bank of Mozambique. But it was always unrealistic to imagine that the central bank could hunt down informal currency traders.

The new bill transfers this responsibility to the police, leaving the central bank to verify the legality of operations undertaken by legitimate foreign exchange traders (banks, exchange bureaus, hotels and the like).

Chang said informal trade in foreign exchange could not be dealt with simply by repressing the traders. Instead they should be persuaded to open legitimate foreign exchange bureaus. "We want to transform the informal traders into formal ones", he said.