Iraqi News Friday PM 11-13-20
Iraqi News Friday PM 11-13-20
TLM724 Administrator BondLady’s Corner
Representatives are calling for the formation of a parliamentary committee to find a radical solution to the problems between Baghdad and Erbil
Friday 13, November 2020 16:34 | Political Views: 209 Baghdad / NINA / Representatives Muzahim Al-Tamimi, Adnan Al-Zarfi, Muhammad Saheb Al-Darraji, and Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani called for the Presidency of the House of Representatives to form a parliamentary committee to find a radical solution to the problems between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The four deputies said, in a joint statement, which the Iraqi National News Agency / NINA / received a copy of: “After difficult labor under difficult circumstances and after discussions that lasted for more than twenty hours and repeated postponements, in order to obtain a unified position for all political blocs, the House of Representatives was able to reach To a mechanism for the financing of the fiscal deficit law that won the approval of the majority, although the issue of borrowing alone does not represent a convincing solution to the current economic and financial crises, and the government and all state institutions must search for immediate and convincing reform measures to address the crisis situation in the country.
And they added: "Undoubtedly, the decision was not the subject of unanimity of MPs, as is usually the case with laws and legislations. However, there are - unfortunately - attempts to impart a political dimension to the law and present it as if it were targeting a specific party, and we mean here our Kurdish brothers, partners of the homeland."
The deputies continued: "While we reject interpretations like this one, we are preparing this as an attempt to evade the negligence, impotence and seriousness that both governments suffered - the federal or regional government - throughout the previous years, which reflected negatively on our people in our governorates and in the region, not to mention. The failure to confront these problems on both sides, specifically the regional government, was the main reason for the intensification of the crisis day after day, and even its exacerbation to the extent it has reached now.
They added, "Everyone knows that the apparent failure of the federal government to find solutions to the financial crisis - except for borrowing - as well as the failure to put forward a moderate solution in the draft bill sent by the government to regulate the disbursement of the region’s dues in a way that achieves justice, which is what put everyone in front of this complexity. In the midst of the difficult challenges facing our country, Iraq, the federal government, the regional government and influential political leaders must seize this remaining opportunity until the new year in preparing the budget _2021 _ in a way that works to overcome what we are in now.
And they stressed their rejection of what causes harm to the people of the Kurdistan region, and the need to take a step towards healing the rift and bridging views in order to reach agreements that serve all of Nina's citizens alike.
And they continued, "Based on the foregoing and we have removed representatives and representatives of this people, we call on the Presidency of the House of Representatives to form a joint parliamentary committee that includes deputies from the region and deputies from all the governorates to discuss finding a legal and radical solution to the basic problems between the region and the federal government and including it in the form of legal texts in a draft law. The 2021 budget, in a way that is consistent with the constitution and the law and achieves justice in the distribution of wealth among the people of the same country, thus pushing the tight circle to a breakthrough so that everyone will then turn to what is more demanding in serving Iraq ./ End 8 https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?key=869314
Saleh: Welcoming The Provision Of Employee Salaries Cannot Be Complete Without A Solution For Kurdish Salaries / Expanded
Friday 13, November 2020 12:44 | Political Views: 422 Baghdad / NINA / The President of the Republic, Barham Salih, stressed today, Friday, that welcoming the provision of salaries for employees in Iraq cannot be complete without a solution to the salaries of their peers who are employees of the Kurdistan region, who are Iraqi citizens and have their rights stipulated in the constitution.
In a statement received by the Iraqi National News Agency / NINA / a copy of it, Saleh said , "The passage of the fiscal deficit financing law was necessary to secure the salaries of employees for the next three months, and that borrowing is not a sustainable solution, and from this point of view we emphasize the serious work in preventing a recurrence of the crisis." Funding employees ’salaries. The borrowing law alone is not sufficient in facing this crisis. A comprehensive reform policy must be adopted in the radical treatment and protection of employees’ salaries as a priority that cannot be tolerated.
Saleh added, "But it is regrettable that the law was approved in the absence of national consensus, specifically from the Kurdish component, which constitutes a negative precedent in political work," noting that "welcoming the provision of salaries for employees in Iraq cannot be complete without a solution to the salaries of their peers from Provincial employees, who are Iraqi citizens and have their rights stipulated in the constitution. "
He continued, "In this context, we stress that citizens and employees are not responsible for the consequences of the political conflicts that have brought us to where we are today, and it must also be emphasized that the outstanding problems between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should be resolved, and specifically the oil file, and rectify it according to the constitution and with transparency, and to achieve Justice, rights and citizenship for all Iraqis. "
He pointed out that "the sensitive conditions that the country is going through require everyone to stand together and support and reject the language of sectarian and national strife, for our people have suffered for long decades from the effects of that rhetoric and irresponsible incitement, far from the spirit of citizenship and the values of establishing a rational and strong state." / End 8 https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?Key=869282
After Borrowing ... The Fate Of The 2021 Salaries May Not Be Well: What Will Happen?
Money and business On Friday, Representative Alia Nassif revealed the conditions for availability of salaries for employees for the next year, while indicating that the salaries will be discussed in the 2021 budget.
Nassif said in press statements, "The deficit financing law voted by the House of Representatives will secure salaries for the end of this year, and in the 2021 budget that will be presented next month, a market will discuss the issue of salaries next year."
On the availability of employees ’salaries, Nassif explained,“ Certainly, the government must have reform measures at border crossings, taxes and customs, reduce expenditures, tighten the belt, and implement the reform paper in a reform rather than informative manner. ”
For his part, economist Ali Agwan considered that the borrowing law will solve the problem of salaries for the next sixty days only and will not solve the economy problem for an Iraqi who breathes his last breath.
Agwan asked: “What about the upcoming budget for 2021? How will the salaries of employees be financed in the coming year ?? The amount of ignorance practiced by some political forces is frightening. They market the passage of the borrowing law as a great victory that was achieved and boast that the parliament session continued until six in the morning.
And he considered, "What the political forces did is to postpone the crisis for sixty days only with a catastrophic, patchwork solution that will basically drown out the rentier economy. Borrowing is a pre-bankruptcy indicator, you pretenders, the solution is not borrowing, the solution is by making structural changes to the identity of the economy, you corrupt losers." Number of observations 573 Date of addendum 11/13/2020 https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=22673
Economist: Iraq is in the process of repeating a step that loses a third of oil revenues per month
Energy Economy News _ Baghdad An expert and professor of economics at Basra University, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, revealed that there is a sixth oil licensing round that is being prepared, which allows the participation of foreign companies in the extraction and production of Iraqi oil in exchange for a share of oil that leads to the loss of about a third of the oil revenues from Iraq in favor of these companies.
Al-Marsoumi said in a blog post monitored by Al-Iktissad News, that "a sixth oil licensing round is being prepared to transfer the remainder of the Iraqi oil fields to foreign companies !!".
The amount of losses
And every new month, the value of the oil revenues achieved in Iraq, which have been recorded for a period of about 3.5 billion dollars per month, or the equivalent of more than 4 trillion dinars, is announced every new month, but in fact, Iraq does not gain from these revenues only 2 billion dollars to lose about 40 % Of the revenue funds in various ways.
How much does it cost to produce a barrel of oil?
The production of a barrel of oil in Iraq costs $ 11 a barrel, including what is given to foreign producing companies, in addition to $ 2 per barrel that goes to the International Monetary Fund as compensation to Kuwait for 1991 losses, which means that $ 13 goes for the price of each barrel in Iraq, whose price is set at less than A barrel of Brent crude is $ 7.
According to the foregoing, if the price of Brent crude reached $ 43 a barrel, Iraq would gain only $ 23 a barrel.
The necessity of re-agreement The economic expert, Raad Twig, called on the government to reconsider the plans for the oil sector regarding licensing rounds, and to re-negotiate with those companies in order to reduce the percentage of what they take on a single barrel and put the national alternative.
Twig said in a press statement: “After 2003, untapped oil fields appeared with no Iraqi national oil companies capable of exploiting giant oil fields, such as the Rumaila fields and Majnoon field, and as a result of the Iraqi government’s need for money, it resorted to the method of licensing rounds, a method similar to Bidding according to conditions set by the government and in line with the requests of those companies.
He explained: “These companies take a large amount of money per barrel, sometimes reaching $ 20 when the price of a barrel was high, which made it ineffective, and today it has become necessary to reduce this percentage per barrel, especially with Iraq reducing its share in OPEC.”
He pointed out that: “It is necessary to reduce the cost of extracting Iraqi oil and making all oil imports go to the Iraqi treasury, as well as for Iraq to plan to own a fleet of tankers to market Iraqi oil, stressing:“ Iraq is obligated to build national oil companies. ”
Twig stressed the need to prepare for the national alternative to extract oil in the regions outside the licensing round, and negotiations must be reopened with foreign companies to reduce their share of a barrel and reduce the extra expenditures that Iraq is obligated to with these companies.
He concluded by saying: “The oil sector needs two plans, an emergency plan in dealing with companies so that oil production is not interrupted under any circumstance, with the withdrawal of these companies, and the second plan is a strategy of sending national cadres through oil extraction companies such as Basra Oil Company or Dhi Qar.”
It is strange that these companies do not bear the risks of exploration or the risks of lower oil prices, and here they have protected their investments without being affected by any emergency on the oil market, according to an article by the President of the Iraqi National Business Council, Daw Abed Zayer, published last April 2020. Number of observations 599 Date of addendum 11/13/2020
https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=22666
5.5 Million Iraqis Face The Double Trauma
Money and business Economy News _ Baghdad The World Bank announced, on Friday, that the "double shock" of the Corona pandemic and the collapse of oil prices have caused huge economic challenges and pushed millions of Iraqis into the abyss of poverty.
In a new report, the World Bank called on the Iraqi government to "take a package of urgent financial incentives and economic reforms to help the poor and the most vulnerable groups in Iraq," indicating that "up to 5.5 million Iraqis may face poverty as a result of this double shock."
He added that "the possible reduction of the public wage and salaries bill could push nearly 1.7 million other Iraqis into poverty, unless the reduction measures are implemented in a gradual and effective manner." He expected that "Iraq's GDP will shrink by 9.5 percent during 2020." While the rate of contraction reached 6.8 percent during the first half of the same year.
According to the report issued by the Economic Monitor of Iraq at the World Bank, "Iraqi government revenues decreased by 47 percent in the first eight months of 2020, while expenditures remained high as a result of the public wage and pension bill, which caused pressure on government funding."
The World Bank praised "the white paper presented recently by the Iraqi government to reform the economy," adding, "If it is implemented, it will constitute a turning point in the Iraqi economy."
The Regional Director of the Levant Department at the World Bank, Saruj Kumar Jha, affirmed that "the government's white paper will promote job creation, especially in the private sector, and economic growth, which are two prerequisites for improving the livelihood of Iraqis."
The World Bank believes that "such reforms could add up to 58.4 percent to the growth of per capita gross domestic product in Iraq."
The government had reviewed a plan or "vision" to bring about comprehensive structural changes in the Iraqi economy, in a "white paper" presented to the representatives of the Iraqi parliament and political factions last month.
Among the things mentioned in this paper are reducing public sector salaries, reforming the state’s financial sector, and making a fundamental reform of the entire system within three to five years.
The government is now paying salaries that are 400 percent more than it did 15 years ago, as the government struggles to cover salaries of inflated public sector employees amid an unprecedented liquidity crisis due to low oil prices.
September’s salaries were several weeks late, and last October’s salaries were not paid yet, but the crisis is on the way to easing after Parliament approved the fiscal deficit financing law that would allow the government to borrow from state reserves to pay salaries. Number of observations 107 Date added 13/11/2020 https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=22669
Representative Finance: We are working to provide an integrated vision to address the economic and financial deterioration
Time: 11/13/2020 11:17:39 Read: 4,407 times {Baghdad: Al Furat News} The Finance Committee in the House of Representatives announced that it is working on providing an integrated vision for developing quick and realistic solutions to address the economic and financial deterioration in the country.
A statement of the committee stated that the Al Furat News Agency received a copy, "Despite the great effort made by the Parliamentary Finance Committee to reduce the government spending gap from 41 to 12 trillion dinars in the deficit financing law that was recently approved, we renew our objection to continuing to pursue an alternative borrowing policy.
On finding real and effective ways and reforms to increase revenues and reduce expenditures, and what prompted us to accept this limit of borrowing is people's livelihood and their strength in terms of salaries, grants, subsidies, medicine, support for farmers, provincial projects and other expenditures that we believe are of utmost importance and which are inevitable to accept.
He added, "While this law included some applicable legal texts, which we believe may be the beginning of reforming some financial institutions and movements in the short term, we are working to present an integrated vision to develop quick and realistic solutions to address the economic and financial deterioration that the Iraqi state suffers from." .
The Finance Committee called on "the government, with its various ministries and institutions, to adopt a policy that adopts economic feasibility as an attempt to achieve self-sufficiency, albeit partially, especially with regard to production or service ministries, and that it does not always make us face two options, either accepting the policy of borrowing or cutting off the livelihood of people of our great people." LINK
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