Saturday Morning Iraq Economic News Highlights 6-10-23

The Difficult Nights Of The Budget.. Another Round Of Maneuvers To Vote On The Deferred Paragraphs

Policy |Baghdad today - Baghdad Some paragraphs of the federal budget are still captive to political differences, while the coordination framework seeks to gather the scene and proceed with approval according to consensus.

The House of Representatives had voted during the Thursday and Friday sessions on some paragraphs of the federal budget, while others were postponed to today, Saturday, especially Articles 14-15-16-17, especially 14 related to the management of Kurdistan oil funds.

The representative of the Al-Fateh Alliance, which is affiliated with the "State Administration" coalition, Karim Al-Muhammadawi, commented on the possibility of voting on the deferred paragraphs of the budget law during today's session.

Al-Muhammadawi told (Baghdad Today) that "the House of Representatives postponed voting on some paragraphs of the budget law, due to the existence of political differences over them."

He added, "Voting on it during today's session depends on the existence of a political agreement on that."

He explained, "There are efforts that will be made by the political forces in order to reach final solutions with the aim of voting on the deferred paragraphs of the budget law and proceeding to pass the entire law during today's session."

After the deep differences raised by the draft federal budget law between the main parties in the Kurdistan region, the differences moved to the center and under the dome of parliament by objecting to Articles 14-17 in the draft law and refusing to vote on it, especially with regard to the region's oil revenues.

While observers of political affairs believe that "the draft budget law every time before it is passed, it witnesses difficult labor because of the partisan interests that were and are still taking precedence over the interests of the country and the citizen." LINK

Parliamentary Finance: The Dispute Over The Budget Over Oil And The Share Of The Region

Representative Jamal Cougar Money and business Economy News – Baghdad Today, Friday, a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Jamal Kocher, identified the budget articles around which the dispute revolves, stressing that a settlement has not yet taken place.

Cocher said in a press interview, "The dispute is about Articles 13 and 14 of the budget."

He added, "The settlement has not yet been finalized, and there are understandings that have been translated into texts for the two articles, which also contain notes that were not agreed upon by the Democratic Party."

He explained, "These materials talk about the delivery of Kurdistan's oil and how to calculate the region's share of it." Views 428 06/09/2023 - https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=34659

Iraq's Budget.. Parliament Votes On Three New Articles And Deletes One

Policy 2023-06-09 | 19,161 views Today, Saturday, the House of Representatives voted on new articles within the Federal Budget Law.

The media department of the Council stated in a statement received by Alsumaria News, that "the House of Representatives voted on Articles (21, 23, 24) of the Budget Law."

She pointed out that "the Council voted to delete Article 22 of the draft law."

Below is the text of Article 22, which Parliament decided to delete:

https://www.alsumaria.tv/uploadImages/ExtImages/Images1/ExtImage-365759-225029344.jpg

LINK

The Budget.. The Sharp Differences Between The Barti Deputies Cause The Postponement Of The Vote On Articles 14 And 15

June 10, 2023 Baghdad / Obelisk Event: The events of the budget approval session.. Moment by moment:

Sharp disagreements between the Parti deputies cause the postponement of the vote on Articles 14 and 15 of the budget law

The budget voting session enters its third day in a row

The House of Representatives votes on Article 13 regarding the export of Kurdistan region's oil

Parliament begins reading Article 13 of the federal budget

The House of Representatives votes on Article 12 regarding the share of the Kurdistan region

Parliament successfully continues to vote on articles of the budget law

The House of Representatives begins reading Article 9 of the Budget Law

Parliament votes on the paragraphs of Article II of the budget

Parliament finishes reading the axes of the Chinese agreement, the new loans and the energy file within the second article of the budget

The House of Representatives continues to read Article Two of the budget

Zahra Al-Bajari, representative of the Al-Sadiqun Bloc: Collecting signatures to include Article 15 of workers and lecturers

Start reading the second article of the budget, on which the vote was postponed during Thursday's session

Now... the number of attendees has reached 259 deputies inside the hall

Parliament resumes voting on the budget

All deputies return to the session hall after agreeing on the controversial points

Al-Halbousi heads to the parliament hall to complete the budget voting session

Thamer Dhiban, representative of Al-Asa'ib: The budget will be passed without the presence of the Democratic representatives and the articles of the region will be drafted in accordance with the constitution and the law

The Speaker of Parliament temporarily suspends the voting session on the budget

Al-Amiri meets with Al-Halbousi and some blocs of the Shiite framework to discuss the controversial paragraphs

News of Barzani's party deputies leaving the voting session on the budget

Parliament ends the first reading of the draft law proposal for the

second amendment to the law replacing members of parliament

The Kurdistan Democratic Bloc attends the voting session on the budget

Al-Halbousi calls on the Finance Committee to read the remaining paragraphs of the budget

The House of Representatives holds its session to complete the vote on the budget

The deputies started flocking to the session hall in preparation for holding it and voting on the budget

The House of Representatives rings its bell, signaling the start of the budget session

Masrour Barzani: I hope that the Kurdish blocs will deal with the budget law with a sense of responsibility

Source: Continuing dialogue with the Kurds on Articles 13 and 14 of the budget

News of a comprehensive agreement to pass the budget

Source: The Presidency of Parliament and heads of framework blocs will vote on the budget

An informed source: The discussions of the heads of blocs with the Presidency of Parliament focused on finding settlements on contentious points.

Al-Halbousi holds a meeting with Al-Amiri and the heads of the coordination framework blocs

The heads of the framework forces meet with their deputies before entering the budget voting session

The House of Representatives adjourns its session for one hour

The House of Representatives votes on Articles 1 and 2 of the Budget Law

The Finance Committee begins by reading the paragraphs of the federal budget copy

Media Department of the House of Representatives: The number of attendees at the session is 258 deputies

Al-Halbousi calls on the Finance Committee to read the budget and directs the number of representatives present

Representative of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Uday Awad: Today’s session will witness the passage of 15 articles of the budget law, and the rest of the articles will be completed on Friday

Start distributing a copy of the federal budget to the deputies

Conflicting news about postponing the budget vote until further notice

The meeting of the Presidency of Parliament with the Finance Committee and the heads of parliamentary blocs ends before the budget voting session

Al-Halbousi chairs a meeting of the Finance Committee, in the presence of First Deputy Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, Shakhwan Abdullah, and heads of parliamentary blocs, prior to the voting session.

Representative Sarwa Abdel Wahed: We will boycott the voting session on the budget if the compulsory savings clause is not added

The number of deputies inside the hall exceeds 100 deputies, with a large number in the courtyard of the parliament.

MP Baqir Al-Saadi: The approval session will take place at ten o'clock in the evening

Representatives of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan bloc: We will not meet with the Democrat and we are going to vote on the budget

Al-Halbousi will soon chair the meeting of the Finance Committee for the final vote, before the session is held

Representative Firas Al-Maslamawi: A large turnout of parliament members and a comfortable majority to pass the budget

The National Union: We will participate in the session to pass the budget law. We will vote on the general budget for 3 years

70 deputies are present inside the hall, with a group of deputies holding closed meetings

Representatives of the Azm Alliance arrive at the parliament building in preparation for the session

MP Sarwa Abdel Wahed: So far, the Finance Committee has not fully voted on the budget

Sarwa Abdul Wahed: There is a clause obligating the Kurdistan government to return what it stole from the employees' salaries

MP Muhammad Al-Baldawi: Most of the political blocs met in their headquarters to discuss the vote on the budget

News of the postponement of the parliament session to ten o'clock in the evening

MP Mustafa Sanad: The leaders of the blocs omitted the crowd differences.

An upcoming meeting of the Parliament Presidency with the Finance Committee and the heads of the blocs to agree on the final version of the budget

Independent deputies flock to the parliament building in preparation for holding a session to vote on the budget

The two deputy speakers of the House of Representatives arrive at the parliament building

Representatives of the bloc flocked to parliament in preparation for the session.

Representatives within the House of Representatives, the amendments have caused an additional burden on the oil companies

Representatives of the coordination framework hold a meeting in the House of Representatives prior to the start of the session dedicated to voting on the budget

Members of the House of Representatives flock to the parliament building to participate in the session to pass the budget law

A meeting of the Kurdish blocs inside the parliament building before the budget vote session

A number of deputies are complaining that they did not obtain a copy of the budget before voting on it

MP Basem Al-Gharibawi: Today's session may not be held at 8 pm due to the absence of consensus

Representative Abbas Al-Zamili: The Badr Parliamentary Bloc is determined to pass the budget law

https://almasalah.com/archives/55402

Central Bank Governor: Dollar Exchange Rates Will Drop Dramatically In The Coming Days

2023.06.10 - Baghdad - people Today, Saturday, the Central Bank revealed its plans to raise financial and gold reserves, and while it specified its procedures for installing prepaid devices, it clarified its plans for restructuring government banks.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Al-Alaq, said in a statement to the official agency, followed by “NAS”, (June 10, 2023), that “packages of instructions for financing in foreign currencies abroad have been launched with the launch of the electronic platform,” noting that “the aim of this package is to meet the requests of All the needs of the Iraqi economic sectors, in addition to the needs of citizens for travel, treatment and study.

Al-Alaq added, "These packages contributed to organizing a large part of the trade process in Iraq through the entry of various sectors into the official channels of transfer, and mitigated exchange rate fluctuations, which at the beginning of the launch of the platform in the market reached approximately 160 thousand dinars per dollar." , stressing that "there is a significant improvement in the work of the trade financing platform and the cash payment platform, and that proceeding in this framework will contribute to a significant decrease in the exchange rate in the coming days."

And he continued, "There is no need to launch new urgent packages at the present time, as the operations are proceeding consistently through electronic platforms with the presence of some operational obstacles or obstacles related to international commercial operations related to financing. Each case is resolved separately, and therefore we see that the situation is going well." towards stability and there is no need to take additional measures.

Regarding setting $2,000 as a maximum limit for spending on Visa and MasterCard cards abroad, Al-Allaq explained, “The aim of setting ceilings for cash withdrawals from payment cards is to avoid misuse of these cards by weak-minded people and currency speculation, since continuing with the previous situation exposes the financial sector to a great threat.” And pushes for more currency smuggling.”

Regarding the operations of seizing cards at airports, the governor of the Central Bank said: “We believe that this issue has ended or is nearing completion through the circulars issued by this bank, which obligated banks and payment companies to issue one card for each customer and use the biometric fingerprint, and to set ceilings for cash withdrawals and the cooperation of the security services.” with this bank.

Regarding the insistence of some merchants on buying dollars from the parallel market, Al-Alaq said: "The insistence of some merchants on such transactions despite the facilities provided by this bank constitutes a factor of instability in the exchange rate and also exposes the owners of these transactions to legal accountability," stressing that

"The failure of small traders to turn into companies that were allowed to enter the window and their insistence on financing through informal methods by buying currency from the secondary market puts pressure on the exchange rate towards an upward trend, and therefore we urge these merchants to establish small companies to enter the window and obtain dollars at the official rate."

He pointed out that "the Central Bank's procedures in monitoring the decision to deal in Iraqi dinars instead of dollars by investment companies and the sale of housing units in investment complexes are carried out through coordination with the National Investment Commission and the office of the Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Support of the Dinar and law enforcement agencies, as well as the facilities provided by these The complexes, all sides agreed to accept the Iraqi dinar.

Regarding the central bank's plans to implement the government bank restructuring program, Al-Alaq explained, "The central bank's plans to implement the restructuring program continue, but the progress of this project is slow, because of its association with other parties related to the Federal Bureau of Financial Supervision and the Ministry of Finance, or because of the weak human capabilities available to it."

Governmental banks," pointing out that "the Central Bank continues to provide support to these banks to improve the quality of data, including conducting an assessment of the quality of assets for the Rafidain and Rasheed banks, as an international auditing company was contracted for this purpose, and this bank bore the cost of contracting with this company."

And he continued: “As for private banks, the control process continues through the supervisory tools of this bank, and at the same time work is being done to update the instructions and controls regulating banking work and in cooperation with international institutions in order to implement international standards and international best practices, and the most prominent of these projects are the following: -

1- Draft supervisory work guide / risk management controls in commercial banks.

2- Draft capital adequacy controls.

3- The Scorecard Project for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Standards (ESC), where this bank issued the first report on the results of (ESC) on 1/23/2023, which is the first of its kind that reflects on the extent to which environmental, social and corporate governance standards are applied in the Iraqi banking sector.

4- Work is currently underway to update the disclosures and financial statements of commercial banks, in cooperation with the Middle East Technical Assistance Center (METAC).

5- A project to develop regulatory tools to deal with systemically important local banks.

Regarding the Central Bank's procedures for installing prepaid devices that were installed in a number of locations, Al-Alaq said that "based on the decision of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers No. 23044 of 2023, paragraph (2) thereof, this bank received a number of requests from ministries and government and private institutions, and it was completed." Addressing it to approach companies providing electronic payment services and request offers to supply, install and operate point-of-sale (POS) devices according to the mechanism and strategy of this bank.

And he pointed out that “the above entities were provided with the names of payment service providers licensed by this bank to actively (processor, collector) for the purpose of concluding the agreements required to serve the electronic collection of funds for financial dues through (POS) devices,” indicating that “electronic payment service provider companies can Licensors collect amounts due for services provided by institutions and government departments electronically, whether in connection with electronic payment gateways or directly through the deployment of point-of-sale (POS) devices.

He stressed that "the electronic bill payment project has already been launched for a number of billed departments affiliated to the ministries (construction, housing, public works, trade, electricity, interior - passports)."

With regard to the Central Bank's procedures regarding monitoring money laundering operations and recovering funds smuggled abroad, Al-Alaq stated, "Based on Article 9 (9 / First / A) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. (39), the work of the Anti-Money Laundering Office And the financing of terrorism is receiving or obtaining reports or information about transactions that are suspected to include the proceeds of a predicate crime, money laundering, or terrorist financing from the reporting authorities. The use of prepaid cards by criminals.

He went on to say, "Following the reports received, the office took the following actions:

A- The Ministry of Finance / General Authority of Customs was approached for the purpose of preventing the issuance of any card that does not bear the name of the card holder (prepaid cards / cards).

B- The office issued a circular to the companies and banks that issued these cards, which included the following:

1- The ceiling of the aforementioned card is (10,000,000) dinars (ten million Iraqi dinars), and the holder of the aforementioned card may withdraw cash up to (3,000) dollars (three thousand dollars) or its equivalent in the currencies of other countries outside Iraq per month.

2- Due diligence measures are taken when recharging, based on Article (10) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. (39) of 2015 and the controls and instructions issued thereunder.

3- The company or the bank has the right to issue only one prepaid card to the same customer, with the necessity that these cards be issued in the customer’s name, and the customer’s name is recorded on the card.

He pointed out that "the office carries out investigations and analysis of the information received from the above authorities, on the basis of which the defaulters are identified from individuals, companies and banks, and a number of suspicious transactions have been referred to the courts specialized in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, based on Article (9 / first / c). ) of the above law, which states: Reports that are based on reasonable grounds for suspicion of money laundering, terrorist financing or predicate offenses shall be referred to the Presidency of the Public Prosecution Office to take legal action in their regard, and to notify the relevant authorities of that.

Regarding plans to raise financial reserves and gold in the Central Bank, Al-Alaq indicated that “the two most important factors that determine the accumulation and depletion of foreign reserves are external, as the accumulation of reserves is mainly linked to the amount of oil exports and the price of a barrel, while the depletion of reserves takes place through importing goods and services as well as transfers.” Foreign Affairs," stressing that "under normal conditions, this bank aims to build a sustainable level of foreign reserves while ensuring high liquidity and relatively good returns."

He continued, "With regard to gold, this bank places increasing its holdings of gold on a high level of importance, and by the end of this year, this bank aims to increase its holdings by at least the equivalent of $500 million."

And about the housing loan initiative between Al-Alaq, that “the housing loans did not stop, as the circular of this bank No. 6/5/988 on 4/27/2023 in paragraph (5) of it indicated that the financing of applications submitted to the Real Estate Bank and the Housing Fund within the allocated allocation would continue.” To them, it is derived after that by reallocating 50% of the total loan installments previously granted, whose total loans financed by the Central Bank through its initiative amount to more than 10 trillion dinars. https://www.nasnews.com/view.php?cat=108856

The Central Bank: Merchants' Insistence On Buying Dollars From The Parallel Market Exposes Them To Legal Accountability

Time: 06/10/2023 12:33:49 Read: 143 times {Economic: Al Furat News} Central Bank Governor Ali Al-Alaq confirmed today, Saturday, that the insistence of some merchants to buy dollars from the parallel market exposes them to legal accountability.

Al-Alaq said, in a press statement, that "packages of instructions for financing in foreign currencies abroad were launched with the launch of the electronic platform," pointing out that "the aim of this package is to meet the requests of all the needs of the Iraqi economic sectors in addition to the citizens' needs for travel, treatment and study."

Al-Alaq added, "These packages contributed to organizing a large part of the trade process in Iraq through the entry of various sectors into the official channels of transfer, and mitigated exchange rate fluctuations, which at the beginning of the launch of the platform in the market reached approximately 160 thousand dinars per dollar." , stressing that "there is a significant improvement in the work of the trade financing platform and the cash payment platform, and that proceeding in this framework will contribute to a significant decrease in the exchange rate in the coming days."

Repair packages

And he continued, "There is no need to launch new urgent packages at the present time, as the operations are proceeding consistently through electronic platforms with the presence of some operational obstacles or obstacles related to international commercial operations related to financing. Each case is resolved separately, and therefore we see that the situation is going well." towards stability and there is no need to take additional measures.

Regarding setting $2,000 as a maximum limit for spending on Visa and MasterCard cards abroad, Al-Allaq explained, “The aim of setting ceilings for cash withdrawals from payment cards is to avoid misuse of these cards by weak-minded people and currency speculation, since continuing with the previous situation exposes the financial sector to a great threat.” And pushes for more currency smuggling.”

Regarding the operations of seizing cards at airports, the governor of the Central Bank said: “We believe that this issue has ended or is nearing completion through the circulars issued by this bank, which obligated banks and payment companies to issue one card for each customer and use the biometric fingerprint, and to set ceilings for cash withdrawals and the cooperation of the security services.” with this bank.

Regarding the insistence of some merchants on buying dollars from the parallel market, Al-Alaq said: "The insistence of some merchants on such transactions despite the facilities provided by this bank constitutes a factor of instability in the exchange rate and also exposes the owners of these transactions to legal accountability," stressing that "The failure of small traders to turn into companies that were allowed to enter the window and their insistence on financing through informal methods by buying currency from the secondary market puts pressure on the exchange rate towards an upward trend, and therefore we urge these merchants to establish small companies to enter the window and obtain dollars at the official rate."

He pointed out that "the Central Bank's procedures in monitoring the decision to deal in Iraqi dinars instead of dollars by investment companies and the sale of housing units in investment complexes are carried out through coordination with the National Investment Commission and the office of the Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Support of the Dinar and law enforcement agencies, as well as the facilities provided by these The complexes, all sides agreed to accept the Iraqi dinar.

Regarding the central bank's plans to implement the government bank restructuring program, Al-Alaq explained, "The central bank's plans to implement the restructuring program continue, but the progress of this project is slow, because of its association with other parties related to the Federal Bureau of Financial Supervision and the Ministry of Finance, or because of the weak human capabilities available to it." Governmental banks," pointing out that "the Central Bank continues to provide support to these banks to improve the quality of data, including conducting an assessment of the quality of assets for the Rafidain and Rasheed banks, as an international auditing company was contracted for this purpose, and this bank bore the cost of contracting with this company."

And he continued: “As for private banks, the control process continues through the supervisory tools of this bank, and at the same time work is being done to update the instructions and controls regulating banking work and in cooperation with international institutions in order to implement international standards and international best practices, and the most prominent of these projects are the following: -

1- Draft supervisory work guide / risk management controls in commercial banks.

2- Draft capital adequacy controls.

3- The Scorecard Project for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Standards (ESC), where this bank issued the first report on the results of (ESC) on 1/23/2023, which is the first of its kind that reflects on the extent to which environmental, social and corporate governance standards are applied in the Iraqi banking sector.

4- Work is currently underway to update the disclosures and financial statements of commercial banks, in cooperation with the Middle East Technical Assistance Center (METAC).

5- A project to develop regulatory tools to deal with systemically important local banks.

Regarding the Central Bank's procedures for installing prepaid devices that were installed in a number of locations, Al-Alaq said that "based on the decision of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers No. 23044 of 2023, paragraph (2) thereof, this bank received a number of requests from ministries and government and private institutions, and it was completed." Addressing it to approach companies providing electronic payment services and request offers to supply, install and operate point-of-sale (POS) devices according to the mechanism and strategy of this bank.

He pointed out that “the above entities were provided with the names of payment service providers licensed by this bank to actively (processor, collector) for the purpose of concluding the agreements required to serve the collection of funds electronically for financial dues through (POS) devices,” noting that “electronic payment service provider companies can Licensors collect amounts due for services provided by institutions and government departments electronically, whether in connection with electronic payment gateways or directly through the deployment of point-of-sale (POS) devices.

He stressed that "the electronic bill payment project has already been launched for a number of billed departments affiliated to the ministries (construction, housing, public works, trade, electricity, interior - passports)."

Money laundering operations