KTFA Members "News and Views" Saturday PM 3-12-2022

KTFA:

MilitiaMan:  That is a dandy Samson.. You nailed.. ~ MM

Samson:  What Is Required From The Federal General Budget For 2022

12th March, 2022 by Dr. Bilal Al-Khalifa

Unfortunately, in most of the past years, the approval of the Federal General Budget Law was after several months had passed since the beginning of the year and the spending had gone according to the Financial Management Law with the rate of 1/12 of the previous budget for that year.

An example of the delay in approving the budget is in 2008 the budget was voted on on 13/4/2009, in 2010 on 26/1/2010 the vote was taken, in 2011 it was on 2/3/2011, and in 2014 on 15/5 /2014, 2017 on 9/1/2017, 2018 2/4/2018, and in 2021 voting was on 3/31/2021.

We note that the budget is usually delayed only in 2017, which was on the first day of the year, and in 2014 and 2020, a budget was never approved.

This year as well, and so far, the budget for this year has not been approved or written, but the budget law must be moved as soon as possible because many projects are on hold, as well as people's livelihoods.

In previous budgets, all budgets were item budgets, completely copying the ones that preceded them, with one thing changing, which is the price of a barrel, which will be the basis for calculating the volume of spending and the deficit and therefore the amount of money that is borrowed. Except last year, the budget included something else, which is the exchange rate of the US dollar against Iraqi dinar.

The important thing is that the budget is a budget of programs and plans, and that it exceed the mistakes that were made in the past by maximizing spending, not maximizing non-oil revenues that we promised in the reform white paper.

In the year 2020, it was a year free of the general budget due to the great turmoil that Iraq witnessed and the change of government, but the volume of spending for that year was 72 trillion dinars, but the budget of 2021 was shocked by the size of the expected spending, which is 129 trillion dinars with a deficit of 28 trillion dinars, and it was supposed to be either it is the size of the previous spending or slightly more than it as a result of the inflation that occurs, which is normal, but the jump in spending was very large.

And we saw the Minister of Finance declaring that the volume of spending that Iraq witnessed for the year 2021 is 111 trillion dinars, with a deficit of 28 trillion in revenues.

Therefore, several points must be taken into account when preparing the next general budget

1 - Reducing public spending from the previous year, and this means the success of the reform plan, otherwise it is to follow the approach of previous governments in failure.

2 - Increasing non-oil revenues and reducing dependence on oil revenues, which constitute more than 90%.

3- Giving attention to investment projects in the non-oil sectors.

4- Reducing government subsidies for electricity and relying on the privatization of some of its sectors

5- Reducing spending in security institutions that take a very large proportion of the budget

6 - Putting a penal condition on the region in the event of non-compliance with the provisions of the law (the Federal General Budget Law) because the previous years and in all of them the region does not abide by the law, and this was stated by the Minister of Finance in Parliament when hosting him and said that the region is the cause of the deficit because it is not obligated to deliver oil revenues and others for the central government

7 - Cancellation of tax and customs exemptions for goods and merchandise from neighboring countries, as is the case in the Iraqi-Jordanian agreement because it reduces non-oil revenues.   LINK

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MilitiaMan:  There is the fire under his behind.. Sadr is all for getting the ball rolling with the GOI and the Exchange Rate. ~ MM

Samson:  Al-Sadr outlines the formation of the new Iraqi government

12th March, 2022

Two identical political sources revealed, on Saturday, that the meeting of the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, with the delegation of the coordination framework, which includes Shiite forces, led to an agreement on naming Riber Ahmed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party candidate, as president of the Republic of Iraq, in addition to defining a consensual mechanism through which a president is chosen. New for the next federal government.

He was missing from the coordinating framework, including Hadi Al-Amiri, Faleh Al-Fayyad, Ahmed Al-Asadi, accompanied by the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Muhammad Al-Halbousi, and the head of the Sovereignty Alliance. He met earlier today with the leader of the Sadrist movement Muqtada Al-Sadr at the latter's headquarters in Al-Hanana district in Najaf.

The two sources told Shafaq News Agency that the meeting in Al-Hanana agreed to choose Riber Ahmed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party candidate for the post of President of the Republic, according to an appropriate vision and the participation of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the next government.

They also said that there is no agreement so far on the candidate for the presidency of the Council of Ministers, referring to the Supreme Committee between the Sadrist movement and the coordination framework, which will hold a meeting in the coming days to discuss a consensual selection mechanism for the position of the head of the next federal government.

With regard to the economic situation, Al-Sadr informed the framework delegation of the need to find solutions to the economic crisis in conjunction with the rise in food prices and control of the market while finding a study to reduce the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, according to the two sources.  

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In previous budgets, all budgets were item budgets, completely copying the ones that preceded them, with one thing changing, which is the price of a barrel, which will be the basis for calculating the volume of spending and the deficit and therefore the amount of money that is borrowed. Except last year, the budget included something else, which is the exchange rate of the US dollar against Iraqi dinar.  LINK

Clare: Missiles target Erbil airport, the US consulate and Shaqlawa road

PM 5:45:34 3/12/2022.Baghdad / Obelisk:

Eyewitnesses reported that rockets fell in the vicinity of Erbil Airport
.Eyewitnesses said that the bombing caused material damage to Kurdistan 24 channel
In the same context, sources talked about the fall of missiles that landed near commercial and
.residential complexes

.Intense flying was heard in the skies of Erbil, with air navigation suspended

Sources: The missiles targeted Diana - Harir Airport - Shaqlawa Mullah Omar Road - Erbil Airport
- and the new American consulate. The..missiles are not Katyushas because the explosions were very powerful According to Kurdish channels, the missiles were long-range, and the number of explosions in Erbil .alone was 14  LINK