Iraqi News Saturday AM 12-26-20

 

Iraqi News Saturday AM 12-26-20

TLM724 Administrator BondLady’s Corner

Representative Economy: 70% Of The Iraqi People Will Be Affected By The Raising Of The Dollar And The 2021 Budget

Editing date: 12/26/2020 18:08 • 9 times read   [Baghdad-Where]  The Parliamentary Economic and Investment Committee confirmed, on Saturday, that more than 70% of the Iraqi people from the poor and middle class will be affected by the government's measures to raise the dollar and the draft 2021 budget.

A member of the Economic Committee, Nada Shaker, said that "the government is supposed to send the draft budget for 2021 last October, but it sent it at the end of the year in a short time and full of errors."

She added that "more than 70% of the poor and middle class of the Iraqi people will be affected by the current crisis due to the increase in the price of the dollar and the 2021 budget." Dinar".

Shaker explained that "the poor class of the people cannot be held responsible for financial mismanagement and financial corruption," stressing that "adjustments will be made to the budget and reduced to ensure that employees' salaries are not compromised.   http://www.alliraqnews.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=105595

Stability Of The Dollar Exchange Rate In The Iraqi Market

Pratha News Agency122 2020-12-26   The exchange rates of the dollar stabilized in the main stock markets and local markets, today, Saturday (December 26, 2020).

The Kifah Stock Exchange recorded 142,000 dinars against 100 US dollars, while the exchange rates for last Thursday in the Kifah Stock Exchange recorded 142,000 dinars per 100 dollars.

As for the exchange rate in the local markets, it also stabilized, as the selling price was: 143,000 dinars per 100 dollars, and the purchase price was 141,000 dinars per 100 dollars.   http://burathanews.com/arabic/economic/383192

Parliamentary Approach: The 2021 Budget Permits The Sale Of The State's Financial Assets And Its Public Companies Within Six Months

Time: 12/26/2020 16:18:42 Read: 1,053 times  {Baghdad: Al Furat News} The head of the Al-Nahj Al-Watani Parliamentary Bloc, Ammar Tohme, revealed the sale of the state's financial assets and public companies within six months in the 2021 budget.

Tohme indicated in a statement, from which {Al Furat News} received a copy, to "a set of notes on the 2021 budget: -

1.       Article (60) of the budget includes a dangerous principle in which there is an extreme negligence of state assets owned by public companies and it is decided to sell them within six months. 

These assets have been spent by the state on its construction tens of billions of dollars and for many years, and the most dangerous in this article is that they are sold under conditions of corruption dominating state decisions, which means that they will lead to selling them at the cheapest prices. It is certain that influential politicians and through their commercial interfaces will acquire these national assets, and from this article And similar articles in the 2021 Budget Law, the government’s policy is clear to end the state’s ownership of all productive assets, whether agricultural or industrial, and to offer them for sale, and I don’t know the extent to which this approach is related to the policies and advice of the International Monetary Fund and its harsh conditions on Iraq!

2. The law grants the State Real Estate Department the authority to sell agricultural lands that fall outside the prohibited boundaries of the roads with which the water share is cut off without an open auction and allows the buyer to use it in various forms of use, and this means weakening the activity of the agricultural sector, which depends mainly on the basis of the existence of agricultural lands, so why is the state excessive With these lands, and allow them to be transferred to a non-agricultural purpose, they could have invested them through their public companies or with the private sector in productive agricultural projects that contribute to maximizing non-oil revenues.

3. Article 56 obliges the Iraqi Media Network to enable state ministries to freely announce their duties .. With this text, the need to allocate funds to promote the government's achievements will cease.

4 - Article 65 of the budget authorizes the Minister of Finance to impose flat fees on registering vehicles entering Iraq in a non-fundamental way (smuggling) and registered in a non-fundamental way (forgery) ... and this text by releasing it and not restricting it to the incidents of smuggling and forgery that occurred before the enforcement of the law means that It allows and gives legal permission for smuggling and forgery, and all that is taken against these legal violations is the imposition of fees ,, continuing the expression with the word inappropriate fees and should be fines because these actions are against the law .. And the other problem is it not the state’s responsibility to legalize the import and subject it to legal and administrative contexts applied before State departments and under its supervision, how can this leave it to fraud and smuggling !?

5. Article 66 talks about printing textbooks and inviting the Ministry of Education to the public and private sectors to carry out printing, and it mentions the names of companies affiliated with the private sector in particular, so why refer to it by name, as the address of the private sector includes it !?

It would have been more appropriate for the government to restrict the printing of textbooks to the public sector for the purpose of providing revenues for the state, converting its companies to profit, and maintaining the necessary revenues for the salaries of its employees.

6. Article 67 talks about settling the amount of government support required or provided for selling energy at the current tariff and for all years .. The government is supposed to initiate measures to invest associated gas that is wasted and wasted annually costs two billion dollars annually, which reduces the subsidy and avoids importing gas from neighboring countries by billions. Dollars a year.

7. Article (69) of the budget obliges the Ministers of Finance and Planning to issue instructions to facilitate the implementation of the law as soon as it is passed, and demands that they not be published in the Official Gazette, as an exception to the provisions of Article (2) of the Publishing Law. This is a strange context that contradicts transparency and oversight on an important issue, which is the state’s expenditures and sources of its revenues, and the verification of its realism in these exceptional financial circumstances.   LINK

Tomorrow ... Parliament Receives The 2021 Budget

Saturday 26 December 2020   114  Baghdad: Ahmed Abd Rabbo  The 2021 budget bill is expected to arrive in parliament tomorrow, Sunday, while Minister of Planning Khaled Battal Al-Najm confirmed that a large percentage of the budget deficit is hypothetical, and that the salaries of employees are completely secure.

The Parliamentary Finance Committee intends to reduce the deductions for employees' salaries, while the House of Representatives needs between 20 to 30 days to pass the bill in light of a tendency to question Finance Minister Ali Allawi and Central Bank Governor Mustafa Ghaleb Mekhaif.

It is noteworthy that the Prime Minister held a meeting, last Thursday, with a number of heads of parliamentary committees, to discuss the budget in light of the current challenges, represented by the Corona pandemic and the financial crisis that accompanied it.

The Minister of Planning said: “The economic developments that Iraq is witnessing, in light of the current crisis, and the cabinet vote on the state’s general budget law for 2021, and the economic reforms it contained, aimed ultimately at moving the economic reality and overcoming the suffocating crisis facing the country.”

He added that "oil is still the main source of financing the budget, and this source is governed by global market prices that are affected by the crises and events that the world is witnessing, as well as that Iraq, on its part, is governed by specific production capabilities," noting that "a large proportion of the budget deficit is hypothetical." And that the employees ’salaries are completely secured.”

And that "the investment allocations, although they are few, but they will contribute to the movement and completion of many projects in the next year."

For his part, a member of the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives, Shirwan Mirza, said in a press statement that “the committee has not officially received the draft federal budget law yet.” Mirza is likely, that “Parliament will hold a session early next year to discuss the bill. "The version available to them is the leaked version that was circulated by the media."

Meanwhile, a member of the committee, Ahmed Hama Rashid, stated, "It was assumed that the state budget for 2021 had reached Parliament last Thursday."

He added that "the Presidency of the Council of Representatives will refer the project to the relevant committees after its first reading, if it arrives."

In turn, a member of the Finance Committee, Magda Al-Tamimi, stated that the committee will work to reduce deductions for employees' salaries with the budget that is supposed to arrive in Parliament tomorrow, Sunday. Al-Tamimi added, "The committee supports the existence of an income tax from salaries, but the matter should be gradual and not surprising."

And she stressed, "To proceed with the abolition of any deductions for teachers, teachers and university professors," noting that "there is a new mechanism presented related to the ration card file away from the current approved mechanism." And she believed that "the new mechanism will protect the local product."

In addition, Representative Nahla Hamad Al-Rawi called for "taking out the aliens" instead of deducting the salaries of employees. She also called for imposing the rule of law at border crossings, maximizing non-oil revenues, and addressing financial waste in government sectors.

Regarding the interrogation, Deputy Uday al-Shaalan said, “There are parliamentary moves to collect signatures to interrogate the Minister of Finance in addition to the governor of the Central Bank,” stressing “the need to investigate the recent leaks that emerged about the presence of information about the central bank’s agreement with private banks and banking offices to buy dollars.”   LINK

 

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