Ethiopian Govt intends to impose a new law about property ownership. The law, if approved by the parliament, would enable state authorities to take action against certain properties.
The new draft law was submitted to the House of Representatives last week. The law authorizes relevant bodies to confiscate a property if the owner cannot prove its source of earning to make the property. The owner will have to show documentary evidence. The citizens who have made properties with money sent to them from abroad will have to submit the receipt to the court and verify that they received the money.
The bill stipulates that the government has the authority to confiscate the property if any person has accumulated wealth beyond his or her identifiable income and cannot prove the legitimacy of the source. It is said that the bill will allow the prosecutor to go back 10 years and file a case for property estimated at 5 million birr whose source is unknown.
This new decree about assets-beyond-means is being introduced to stop Ethiopian diaspora community from sending remittances to Ethiopia through illegal channels. Government has been asking diaspora community to use legal banking channels to send remittances.
Anti Ethiopian govt activists and advocacy groups have been campaigning to stop flow of remittance to Ethiopian government from abroad. They are of the view that the remittances strengthen the government which spends money on military offensives in the country.
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