KTFA:

Samson:  Parliamentary Finance recommends electronic customs linking of imported goods to dollars

9th July, 2021

Today, Friday, the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives recommended linking a customs electronic tax for imported goods with the Central Bank of Iraq.

The head of the committee, Haitham al-Jubouri, said in an interview with the Iraqi News Agency and followed by "Economy News", that "the committee does not have data on the volume of imports carried out by the Ministry of Trade or the Ministry of Planning, but the central bank is responsible for those transactions that are submitted to it."

Al-Jubouri stressed that “the committee demanded that there be an electronic customs and tax link with the Central Bank in order to be sure that the goods for which the dollars are given will enter actual goods through the outlets in exchange for them,” noting that “the currency auction is an offer and demand and so far the price is appropriate and the banks in the remittances, they did not make a large profit, but rather some of them are exposed to a loss if the operating budget you make is taken.”

Al-Jubouri explained that "the Finance Committee hosted the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank to find out the monetary and financial measures taken by the government to address the repercussions in the light of which the exchange rate change was approved."  LINK

ATPinfinity:  THIS ARTICLE IS FULL OF MYSTERIOUS IMPLIED MECHANISMS and intrigue!

"Today, Friday, the Finance Committee....recommended linking a customs electronic tax for imported goods with the Central Bank of Iraq."

"....to address the repercussions in the light of which the exchange rate change was approved."

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Samson:  Parliamentary Agriculture announces the disbursement of 244 billion dinars to farmers within two days

9th July, 2021

The head of the Parliament’s Agriculture, Water and Marshlands Committee, Salam Al-Shammari, announced on Friday the disbursement of 244 billion dinars as dues to wheat farmers for the current year during the next two days

Al-Shammari said in a statement, seen by "Al-Iqtisad News", "The outputs of farmers for strategic crops will also be supported by adding an amount of 50 thousand dinars, which was included in the federal budget earlier

Al-Shammari added that "meetings will continue with officials in the Ministry of Finance until all the obstacles that prevent farmers and farmers from receiving their financial dues are resolved

The Presidency of Parliament assigned the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Water and Marshes to chair the committee to follow up on farmers' entitlements  LINK

Jay:  Axis 2, Section 2 of Iraq's "White Paper". Get'er done Iraq!

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Samson:  Iraq is building the largest submerged tunnel in the Middle East linking the ports of Umm Qasr and Al-Faw

9th July, 2021

Iraq has begun work on Khor Al Zubair to construct what will be the largest submerged tunnel in the Middle East. The underwater tunnel will contain six lanes and a separate emergency lane, and will be used to transport cargo and goods from around the world.

The tunnel is being built to boost export capacity, but its completion will depend on securing financing for the project.

The 2.5-kilometer tunnel project was awarded to South Korea's Daewoo Engineering & Construction in 2019 at a cost of $86 million.

But Daewoo and Technetal, an Italian company tasked with overseeing the construction and design, said completion of the project depends on the state commercial bank issuing a letter of credit, a document that guarantees payments to foreign companies.

“We are here to build the submerged canal tunnel which is the first in the Middle East, we are doing some kind of restoration in the prefabrication yard for the future project,” says Chief Engineer at Technital Bersano Fernando, adding that this project has a “timing with a time frame of 20 months.”

Once completed, the submerged tunnel will connect Iraq's two main commodity ports, Umm Qasr and Al-Faw, which is also being constructed by Daewoo, to the country's highway network.

Iraq's ability to import and export is significantly restricted because there is only one major commodity port.  LINK

Samson:  Are Lebanon's banks heading towards closing? .. A pre-disaster warning

8th July, 2021

The Association of Banks in Lebanon warned against compromising the mandatory reserve in the Central Bank, and vowed legal measures to stop it.

After the meeting of the boards of directors of Lebanese banks, the association stressed that the mandatory reserve constitutes an integral part of customers' deposits with banks, as the association previously explained in its letter to the Governor of the Banque du Liban on April 1, 2021

The association held the state responsible for draining bank deposits with the Banque du Liban during the past years, and that the continuation of these behaviors will eliminate some of the capabilities that may contribute to the economic and financial revival when the government is formed and the economic wheel is launched in cooperation with international financial institutions and countries supporting Lebanon. Hours after his election, the head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon opens fire on the government

Lebanon supports the poorest families with a financing card... a mysterious project

The statement issued by the Association’s Directorate of Information and Public Relations added: The Association holds the Bank of Lebanon responsible for violating the mandatory reserve and submitting to pressures exerted on it by the political authorities, contrary to the wording and spirit of the Monetary and Credit Law, where the purpose of the mandatory reserve is limited to the needs of the banking sector.

She pointed out that the reduction of the mandatory reserve rate in currencies requires the Banque du Liban to return the liberated amounts to the depositors who have the right to them. It is not permissible to use the amounts released recently as a result of reducing the rate from 15% to 14% for subsidy purposes. We hope that such a trend will not be repeated. The statement concluded: The association is currently studying the measures that can be resorted to to prevent compromising the mandatory reserve by the state or the central bank

Employees' union: Close the banks

 On the other hand, the Executive Council of the Syndicate of Banks Employees issued a recommendation to take a decision to stop work. And she said in a statement, “Let the banks close, hoping that other institutions will follow suit, and let us all abide by the homes, and let the rulers rule the stone and closed doors, or speed, and in a few days to take the necessary action, stressing that excessive positivity in some circumstances such as the one we are going through today leads to uncalculated negatives on the home level

After the meeting of the Executive Council of the Syndicate of Banking Employees, Head of the Syndicate of Banking Employees, Asad Khoury, addressed the departments and the Association of Banks, saying that the dismissal processes against our colleagues, which are approved by some departments individually, will be confronted by all means

And he demanded that wages be corrected after they had eroded and their purchasing power became less than 10% of what we were before the fall, and that negotiations for a collective labor contract that was afflicted by a defect in most of its aspects were afflicted by the crisis, compared to the assessment that was acceptable and somewhat balanced at the date of its signing. In addition, the Association of Banks called for unifying standards regarding the application of the circulars issued by the Banque du Liban

On the other hand, he called on officials to start, within a few days, the formation of a government of independent specialists, as stated in the French initiative, and to go to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He called for rebalancing the pension, especially for those who reach retirement age in this deadly crisis, specifically before raising the minimum wage and increasing the percentage that was eroded with the insane rise of the dollar exchange rate, and we have many solutions if the authority fails to find them

LINK