$ 220 million smuggled from Algeria to foreign countries

Ministry of Finance referred 1,000 files to justice on dealers who violated the legislations on exchange and foreign currency conversion, and committed misdemeanors with the total value of illegal transfers of $ 220 million, which is the equivalent to 17 billion dinars (1,700 centimes billion).

Echorouk sources prepared a report on violations of exchange and remittances that were prepared by the Ministry of Finance, in coordination with the Central Bank of Algeria, and showed that the audits in exchange operations led to the liberation of 1000 files which were transmitted officially, by the beginning of this month, to Justice to investigate on the misdemeanors and abuses that were committed in exchange operations, as the list of the perpetrators of the problem of hard currency includes the names of Algerian and foreign traders, and even mixed companies.

Same report revealed that the “smuggling” hard currency is through using the import and export, and these operations damaged the national economy.

The report points out to some of the methods that are used in transferring huge amounts of money to foreign countries, under the cover of importing and exporting some products by economic traders without receiving their entitlements, as some parties depend on imports in smuggling and abandon these imported goods upon arrival to ports, after confirming that the funds have been transferred from the dinar to the euro or the dollar at the bank level, and exceeded the Algerian border, while exporters intend to leave entitlements with foreign banks abroad, as one of the methods of the convincing smuggling.

The report, which was transmitted with 1,000 files to justice, and which condemned customers of important names of seriousness of the matter, though the file talked about bleeding in the public treasury by $ 220 million during the last six months, but the owners of the file even though they know it is dangerous, but they add a note to another, confirming that the “smuggling” of hard currency and registered violations and a decline of 54%, compared to the report, which was prepared at the closure of last fiscal year, by the Ministry of Finance, which the Directorate of Customs and the services of the central bank participated in its preparation.