Angola news: Proposal for Penal Code to limit financial transactions

The proposal of the Penal Code foresees limiting the transactions of money in hand up to 3 million kwanzas for the people and 5 million kwanzas for the companies, in order to prevent the circulation of large amount of Money outside the financial system of the country.

This aspect, which until then was not covered by the legislation, will discipline and punish some practices that undermine the financial market, according to the Deputy Attorney General, Mota Liz, who spoke to the press after discussing the diploma in the specialty, in the National Assembly, focused on corruption in the private and commercial sector.

The law augurs to retain currency, transactions with large amounts of money, and prevent people from keeping money withdrawn from the official financial circuit in warehouses, large containers or other improper sites.

This will give greater security to the currency, as well as to the economies of the people who own them, but will also allow the national financial system to be fluid.

"If there is a payment system, if the companies are official, they pay taxes, they have (bank) accounts, why do not they accept payments made to the banks? Why do not they use the official financial means to make large-amount of payments?" the Public Prosecutor asked.

MPs, who closed with only a few technical adjustments, discussed the proposal of the Penal Code of 475 articles, recommended that the monetary reference in the document be in kwanza and not in US dollars, as it stands.

Regarding the protection of fauna and flora, the proposal of the Penal Code foresees punishing, with fines, the practices of slaughtering animals in places without sanity for commercial purposes.

"The Criminal Code is fundamentally humanitarian. The restrictions on freedoms are justified as guarantees of their own liberties or to create a healthy social coexistence," he concluded.

The Angolan Penal Code in force dates from 1886. The process of revision of this one has been going on since 2004, with the objective of adapting to the new social reality of the country.

With inputs from agency.