Bilel Sahnoun: 2022 Finance Law will be beneficial to Tunisian economy

General manager of the Tunis Stock Exchange (BVMT), Bilel Sahnoun, said that 2021 was a positive year in relation to the events that took place in Tunisia. “The contribution of the financial market to the Tunisian economy has exceeded 900 million dinars. The three national loan operations were a success during which intermediaries raised nearly one billion dinars. The Tunindex rose by 2.34% whereas it had closed the year 2020 with a drop of 3%,” he explained.

Invited on January 5, 2022, by Wassim Ben Larbi to Expresso program on Express FM radio, Bilel Sahnoun explained that the capitalization of the stock market had reached 23.3 billion dinars, representing nearly 20% of GDP. He explained that foreign investments occupied 23% of this sum or 5.35 billion dinars. In 2020, the share of these investors represented 25%, a decrease of 2%.

“The overall volume of trade on the Tunis Stock Exchange was 2.6 billion dinars in 2021 against 2.8 billion dinars in 2020. One third of this volume concerned the registration of non-listed joint-stock companies. The transactions of sandstone to sandstone blocks reached 573 million dinars,” he added.

The general manager of the BVMT considered that the 2022 Finance Law was beneficial to the Tunisian economy. He stressed the absence of an increase in corporate and income taxes. “The investor has not been impacted by the Finance Act 2022. The law has put in place fiscal stability and reflects continuity with previous laws. This is of interest to investors,” he added.

Bilel Sahnoun also highlighted the introduction of tax benefits for the green economy. “The tax relief of 10,000 dinars per year is very important,” he said.

“We must all succeed in convincing the International Monetary Fund of the effectiveness of an agreement with Tunisia so that we can subsequently enter into bilateral agreements with Tunisia’s partners. We must work to ease internal tensions,” he concluded.

Bilel Sahnoun recalled the introduction of a new optical platform, the introduction of ESG reporting and sustainable development indicators and the implementation of a new compartmentalisation.

The general manager of BVMT explained that the introduction of Taraji holding initiated by Espérance Sportive de Tunis and Société Tunisienne d’Automobile (STA) official dealer of the brand Chery Motors will take place during the beginning of 2022.

“The BVMT is also planning to set up a platform dedicated to startups to divide the risks for investors and put them in contact with a public of investors interested in this type of economic structure. It is not a compartment for the general public. We will start to implement this project by the end of the year. Another project will be launched. It concerns the creation of a commodity exchange. The pilot products concerned are olive oil and dates. It involves several actors such as the Central Bank of Tunisia, Utap and Utica. It will be carried out in partnership with the USAID’s Tunisia Jobs programme,” he said.

Bilel Sahnoun explained that international index providers, such as Morgan Stanley Capital International, carry out semi-annual audits of the stock market. He assured that the rating respected international standards. According to him, the weakness of capitalization transactions and overall trading volume was not attractive. “The listing of large companies such as the Société de promotion du Lac de Tunis, the Régie nationale des tabacs et des allumettes and the Société nationale de distribution des pétroles – AGIL will attract more investors,” he said.

TunisianMonitorOnline

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