KTFA:

DELTA:  FROM IRAQI TV....

"An informed source reported that the reform paper promised by the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, regarding the economic situation that Iraq is going through, has been completed"

  "the reforms included in the paper included radical solutions to gradually save the country and stabilize its financial and economic situation." 

"white paper will be presented to Al-Kazemi during this week and after that to the House of Representatives." 

DELTA:  The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers decided to suspend the official working hours of Thursday,  10/8/2020 in all departments of the State, except for the service, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein

KBC123:  Thanks Delta!  So, holiday???     Hope they're celebrating an RI!

************

Samson:  The Central Bank begins implementing steps to reform the banking sector (CBI site)

Today, Monday, the Central Bank of Iraq began implementing its first reform steps for the banking sector, as it finished classifying private commercial and Islamic banks operating in Iraq according to a set of international standards as well as a number of standards approved by this bank.

This step comes within the framework of enhancing confidence in the banking sector, improving the quality of services provided to the public, as well as enhancing competitiveness in the Iraqi banking sector.

This bank confirms that it had previously asked the lagging banks more than once to work on correcting their situation and paying their customers' dues. Therefore, this classification will be an opportunity for these banks to prove their seriousness in achieving the requirements of reform and pay the dues of depositors and shareholders.

Finally, we announce that the next stage will include the process of "reforming government banks as well," noting that the reform measures that have been adopted depend mainly on the Central Bank Law No. (56) of 2004 and the Iraqi Banking Law No. 94 of 2004 and the instructions and controls issued pursuant to them     

The Central Bank of Iraq   Information Office

,5th of October 2020   Baghdad   link

Iobey777:  WOW!!

**************

Samson:  The 'White Paper' on Economic Reform Promised by Al-Kazemi Completes

Today, Sunday, an informed source reported that the reform paper promised by the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, regarding the economic situation that Iraq is going through, has been completed. 

The source said to "People" (October 4, 2020) that "the white paper consists of two parts, and includes reforms to the financial situation in the country and will be presented to Al-Kazemi during this week and after that to the House of Representatives."  

He added that "the reforms included in the paper included radical solutions to gradually save the country and stabilize its financial and economic situation."  

On Sunday, Finance Minister Ali Abdul Amir Allawi confirmed that Iraq will move from the traditional budget to the program budget within a year and a half, indicating that the tax rate will not be high, but the citizen will not accept it for not providing the necessary services.   

Allawi said in a statement to the official agency, and "people" followed him (October 4, 2020), that "the budgets for the years 2021-2023 we have started working on them now, but they will not be the main ones, because the Ministry of Finance is currently unable to implement it in a complete way, but it may hinder it." For a year and a half so that we can move from the traditional budget-drawing method to the program budget. "    

He added, "Tax revenues constitute a very small percentage of the state's resources, and it is not high if compared to any other country, because the tax structure is reasonable in Iraq."   

He pointed out that "citizens will not respond to taxes, and they may have justification, because the state does not provide them with the necessary services, so the level of taxes must be linked to services and their quality."    

He continued, "It is assumed that we get 8 trillion dinars from taxes, while we are currently getting less than one trillion, because there are large exemptions and exemptions."    

He stated, "Iraq contains a kind of state seizure, as it is not necessary for this seizure to be by the parties, but it may be from all parties that have a stake and influence on the decision-making."    

He stressed, "The need to subject the state to completely different professional controls and ways of working, and the solution must be a kind of separation between the legitimate and semi-legal requirements of political parties, according to the electoral results, because the balance is difficult, so that we have a completely independent government apparatus, which does not exist now." ".    

 Finance Minister Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi said that paying employees' salaries is a matter related to the House of Representatives voting on the borrowing law, stressing that this step will address the current deficit in the country.  

Allawi added in a statement to the official agency, followed by "People" on Sunday (October 4, 2020), that "the salaries of retirees for the current month have been launched without any problem, pointing out that the salaries and allowances of employees will be launched during the next few days or weeks."        

He added, "The amounts will be available if the House of Representatives approves the borrowing law," stressing that "the borrowing law is very important because it meets the financial needs of the state and addresses the deficit in the budget."        

  The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed, earlier Friday, that the fiscal deficit is a temporary condition in Iraq, but the Minister of Finance has the powers to take immediate action.   

The committee's reporter, Representative Ahmed Al-Saffar, said in a statement to the official channel, followed by "People" (October 2, 2020), that "the current deficit is a temporary and embarrassing deficit for the government and parliament, because there is a slight deficit to finance the salaries of the month of September, which the government is late in paying." Noting that "in the event of waiting for the submission of the draft budget or the submission of a new loan law, the issue will be delayed by more than a week, 10 days, or maybe more, and this will lead to a lot of embarrassment."        

He added that "according to the public finance literature, the Iraqi constitution, and the Financial Administration Law, if there is a slight deficit, the Minister of Finance has the powers to take immediate action," indicating that "there are two types of debt; real fixed debt which results from a significant decrease in real revenues versus expenditures." The public deficit is a permanent and permanent deficit and it is called the fixed debt, but the current deficit in Iraq is a temporary deficit, and the debt is called a debt remaining in the public finances and it is possible to put up temporary treasury bills that express the existence of revenue but it is a delayed income. Future. "        

 He continued, "Iraq does not have a financial crisis because it has resources, but the state and the government cannot access them, so the current deficit in Iraq is a temporary deficit, and the debt is a debt and the deficit can be paid in the future." The great embarrassment for the government is for the finance minister to move to offer bills and immediate borrowing from Iraqi banks or the central bank to pay salaries. Then the move will take place a week later when Parliament begins its sessions and the normal situation in Baghdad returns after the forty-day visit.        

Al-Saffar pointed out that "the draft budget was delayed sending it to the House of Representatives, and there was only one night remaining in the Office of the Speaker of Parliament, and it was withdrawn by the government until the Finance Committee did not see it, and I do not know the reasons behind the withdrawal of the project, and this embarrassment to the House of Representatives by the Ministry of Finance is absolutely unacceptable because The mistake and imbalance is the lack of monetary and financial policies in Iraq. All that exists is that they are waiting for debts and financing the operating budget. "   

 Al-Saffar stressed that "the parliament is ready to hold any emergency session in order to solve the current crisis. It is possible to borrow immediately and then remedy the situation after a while because it is not correct that the employee waits for days without a salary and this is his only source of income."   

 He pointed out that "there are two solutions; either submitting the draft budget as soon as possible until it is approved, or resorting to new borrowing if the government is able to obtain Parliament's approval because the issue of debt in Iraq has become in a very dangerous range and leads the Iraqi economy to the unknown."   link

Jerry1971:  FANTASTIC AND CONFIRMED NEWS coming right out of the PMs office , IMO all the ducks are lining up one after the other slowly and surely this blessing is coming by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen .

Godservant:  The White Paper unless there are more than one as in Papers has the rate and date per WS through Frank IMO..........Rubber hitting the Road IMO

Samson:  Al-Nasiri: Borrowing and reducing the exchange rate of the dinar is not a solution to our economic problems

4th October, 2020

On Sunday, the economic and banking advisor, Samir al-Nusiri, called for not relying mainly on the assumption of Iraqi banks and the Central Bank of Iraq and for the Ministry of Finance to prepare its plan and programs for economic reform in accordance with the request of the Iraqi Council of Representatives three months ago and include it in the budget for 2021 and diversify sources of revenue and revolutionize productive sectors towards Enhancing resources without relying too much on oil revenues and borrowing

Al-Nusiri said in an interview with Al-Eqtisad News, that the Ministry of Finance's continued adoption of the borrowing policy and insistence on it during the past three months and the next three months for the purpose of paying the salaries of employees and retirees and social welfare will lead the economy to the unknown because the excellent foreign reserves at the Central Bank have made exceptional efforts During its safe investments and its rational and balanced monetary policy during previous years, it must be preserved because its reaching the minimum limits according to the standards of the International Monetary Fund will lead to a lack of control over the coverage of the local currency in circulation and the lack of exaggeration in the exchange rate of the local currency and confusion of the financial and monetary market and the high rate of inflation will lead To the collapse of the already fragile economic situation, due to the special circumstances of Iraq and their disastrous repercussions on the national economy

He added that the leaked information indicates that there is an intention to reduce the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar, and if that actually happened, it is realistically aimed at improving the government's financial position and covering the budget deficit due to the continuous escalation in the general budget expenditures, but what the reduction in the exchange rate will achieve is only a small percentage. By analogy with the negative economic aspects and impacts on the economic situation, the citizen and the market

Al-Nusiri stressed that the solution to the problem is to support and stimulate the real sector, diversify sources of income, and increase budget revenues in the direction of reducing the proportion of oil revenue in the budget. Iraqi and non-application of static experiment templates and countries that do not have complex and cumulative challenges that Iraq has suffered from for several years

Al-Nusayri proposed a road map for economic reform that includes rapid measures to address the current crisis and strategic measures for 2021 and 2022, as follows

   Quick procedures

1- Speaking frankly with the people

 2 - Announcing austerity policy

3 - Issuing compulsory savings bonds at a reasonable rate at an appropriate interest. With a commitment to pay interest annually and extend the recovery period of the asset until the crisis is over

4 - The issuance of legislation to regulate the work of the private sector and unify the retirement law for both sectors to reduce pressure on the budget

5 - Maximizing local revenues through improved collection of taxes, electricity, rents , etc. .. Real State

6 - Imposing taxes on the total salary, incentives and bonuses for public, mixed and private sector employees

On the other hand, reducing spending through

1 - Reducing diplomatic missions and limiting them to political and commercial partners of utmost importance

2 - Stopping the dispatches or reducing them to the very necessary limits

3- The ration card is limited to needy families

 4- Reducing working hours to reduce waste in electrical energy consumption. 5. Transferring government wheels between departments and according to the need to reduce the purchase of new ones. It is possible to suggest a lot of ideas leading to stopping the waste of public money

Strategic measures

 First ‐ Begin a systematic movement to draw up a roadmap for administrative and economic reform by the Iraqi government and private sector, economic, financial and banking elites and competencies, and that the reform movement is based on several important economic pillars that adopt a new methodology to manage the economy and achieve the central goal of moving the economy from rentier to productive and to activate sectors Productivity other than oil to reach a ratio approaching towards reducing the percentage of dependence mainly on oil revenue from general budget revenues, creating sustainable development, achieving diversity in resources, developing economic and human structures for the proper construction of the national economy and building the precursors of the transition to a market economy

Secondly -  The formation of the Supreme Council for Economic Reform, provided that a binding law for the ministries is legislated for the implementation of its decisions and has the authority to follow-up, monitor and evaluate, and it shall be formed under the chairmanship and membership of a group of government experts and the private sector. His first task is to lay down policies and mechanisms to diversify the sources of financing the general budget and not rely on oil only

Third ‐ Moving to the central administration of the economy so that the principle of (central planning and decentralization of implementation) is implemented, and this means that the Supreme Council for Economic Reform takes charge of drawing plans and policies centrally and distributes their implementation to specialized councils for construction, investment and implementation of development projects in the economic and human sphere. These councils are

* Council The Private Sector 
* The Construction Council  
* The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority  
* The Public Service 
Council * The Local Product Support and Protection Council

 Fourth ‐ Creating and creating an investment climate for local and foreign investors, motivating and encouraging them, and ensuring their contractual rights to attract their capital and protect them from the pressures of spoilers

Fifthly - providing soft loans to finance small, medium and large projects, establishing a legal and institutional system for managing, developing and developing them, as well as issuing and amending laws for the legal environment to regulate the economic process and here means issuing new laws instead of the laws that were issued in 2004, due to the changes that occurred in the national economy during the 17th year. Public

Sixth - Activating investment in the agricultural, industrial, energy, tourism, services and housing sectors, as well as working on reforming, developing and developing the banking sector through the applications of monetary policy and organizing the relationship and restrictions that govern financial and monetary policies, as well as the serious direction to reform the tax, financial and customs system. Addressing the failure to achieve the required growth rates in the national income

Seventh - Supporting, developing and motivating the private sector and benefiting from its capabilities, capabilities, capitals and investments in building the national economy and its participation in economic decision-making, managing the economy

Eighth - Emphasizing the independence of the Central Bank and not pressuring it with governmental economic decisions, whatever the justifications, and developing a new methodology to overcome the challenges of instability in the financial system and the monetary system, which means developing coordinated and balanced plans to overcome the challenges of monetary policy and the challenges of the deficit in non-oil revenue and the deficit in the balance of payments and the balance Commercial

LINK

Samson:  The Central Bank decides to reassess the financial position of private banks

4th October, 2020
The Board of Directors of the Central Bank decided, on Sunday, to reassess the financial position of private banks.

A council statement, of which Mawazine News received a copy, stated that “the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Iraq decided in its recent session in September 2020 to re-evaluate the financial position of all private banks, by directing the departments concerned with this bank, by auditing and evaluating the capital of private banks and determining The percentage of deficit and the sources of that money."

The statement stated, "The decision comes in line with the reform plan led by the management of this bank to create a real banking sector, consistent with the requests of depositors in dealing with those banks."    LINK

*************

Samson:  In numbers, the region has no financial reserves and the size of its debts has been revealed

10/05/2020 13:17:29

 The President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, announced today, Monday, the size of the loans and obligations arising from the region.

Masrour Barzani said in a report presented to the Kurdistan Parliament today that "the total external and internal debts owed by the Kurdistan region amount to $7.256.283.646 dollars." He explained, "The total debt and financial obligations, including bank loans and employee salary savings in the Kurdistan region, amounts to 28,476,675,039 dollars."

Barzani indicated that "among this amount, financial commitments amounted to $8,337,989,532, while the liabilities related to savings on employees’ salaries amount to $8,966,156,514, while the debts of the Iraqi Commercial Bank and Kurdistan International Bank amount to $3,916,245,347."

He pointed out that it was not possible to distribute the salaries of employees for two months since he took over the government because of the failure to send financial dues by the federal government during the months of May, June and July and the decline in local revenues."   LINK

*************

Samson:  Parliamentary Finance: Iraq possesses 40 enormous economic resources other than oil

5th October, 2020

The Finance Committee confirmed, today, Monday, that Iraq has 40 economic resources other than oil, while it made clear that most of these resources do not go to the budget, which caused the financial deficit.

Committee member Jamal Cougar said to "Al-Akhbariya", that "Iraq has 40 enormous economic resources to cover its financial deficit and even to keep the surplus from it for future budgets."

And he stressed "the need not to rely on oil much, especially with global market fluctuations, the Corona pandemic, and the previous government reduced Iraq's share of sales by 21 percent."

Cougar pointed out that "some resources in the ministries do not go to the federal budget, but are distributed and spent in contravention of the law, which led to billions being lost annually without being included in the financial budgets."

It is noteworthy that Iraq was one of the most important agricultural exporting countries, especially dates and citrus fruits, as well as that most of its well-produced factories and factories have been closed since 2003.  LINKLINK