Wednesday Morning Iraq Economic News Highlights 5-24-23

Learn About The Latest Developments In The Budget

Money  and business   Economy News – Baghdad  The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed, on Wednesday, that most of the budget items have been decided in preparation for a vote on it.

The Parliament's media department said in a statement, "The Finance Committee, chaired by Atwan Al-Atwani and in the presence of its members, resumed a meeting to resolve some technical matters related to the federal general budget law, in preparation for submitting it to the House of Representatives."

He explained, "The committee decided to visit a delegation of its members to the Ministry of Finance to view the files that need clarification, in addition to resolving the file of lecturers and contracts after 10/2/2019, and the rest of the groups in order to adapt their conditions."

He added, "During the meeting, it hosted the head of the Martyrs Foundation, Abdul-Ilah Al-Naili, regarding the work of the commission and its budget, while Al-Naili reviewed a vision about the foundation's needs for financial allocations for the implementation of projects for the foundation's development and social programs."

He continued, "A number of proposed items and materials were discussed in order to ripen them in a way that contributes to maximizing revenues, investing resources for the state treasury, establishing projects, as well as supporting farmers who use modern irrigation systems, and voting on them."

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The Meetings Of Al-Sudani And The Leaders Of The “Framework”: A New Date For Passing The Budget And Stopping The Disintegration Of The “State Administration”

2023-05-24 By Sotaliraq  Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan  Hours before the new supposed date for passing the budget, the coordinating framework is trying to control some disagreements or delay them until another time.

Information indicates that one of the "framework's" missions during the recent past was to block the way for interventions from one of the countries to destabilize consensus.

The last two days witnessed an intensification of political meetings, which amounted to 5 meetings, most of which moved Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sudani to meet with leaders.

Those meetings discussed two main issues: the budget, increasing governorate allocations, and reducing disputes.

The most prominent of these meetings was between Nuri al-Maliki, the leader of the State of Law, and Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the League, after leaks about differences between the two parties.

Commenting on these meetings, an informed political source close to the "framework" says: "It is working to impose political calm in preparation for passing the budget."

And the source, who spoke to (Al-Mada) on condition of anonymity, adds: “There are differences within some alliances in the State Administration Coalition (which includes all the main forces in Parliament).”

And he continues, "In these meetings, attempts were made to stop the interference of a country (which he did not mention specifically) that wanted to destabilize and dismantle the ruling coalition."

Iran is often mentioned in those situations, as Tehran has distinguished relations with some political parties, especially the Shiites.

What increases the chances of Tehran putting pressure on the "framework", according to observers, is the closeness of the Shiite alliance with the United States.

In the last rounds of US Ambassador Elena Romanowski, she had met with al-Maliki shortly before the latter's meeting with Khazali.

According to former members of the Dawa Party led by al-Maliki, the latter offered Romanowski help in dismantling the "militias" due to his experience in this field.[/size]

Al-Maliki had declared more than once his refusal to hand over security positions to parties that have armed wings.

He considered the position of the leader of the State of Law to be hostile to Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, which at one time demanded the management of the intelligence service, which is still under the supervision of al-Sudani.

And in the last meeting between Al-Maliki and Al-Khazali, on Monday evening, they discussed: “Developments in the current political situation and local and regional security developments were discussed: according to a statement by the office of the first.

Shortly thereafter, al-Maliki met with Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sudani, and the two parties stressed the need for Parliament to speed up the approval of the budget, according to a government statement.

Then, on the same day, Al-Sudani met with the leader of the Wisdom Movement, Ammar Al-Hakim, and a statement was issued after the meeting, which talked about the budget.

A day earlier (last Sunday), the prime minister had met with the leader of the Al-Fatah coalition, Hadi al-Amiri, and Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, and the most prominent discussions were about the budget.

According to the informed source, the second part of the objectives of the recent meetings «was to increase the allocations of the provinces equally in the budget, with the exception of the share of the provinces affected by terrorism».

The source confirms that «it was agreed to double the allocations of the provinces to become 5 trillion instead of 2.5 trillion dinars».

Criticisms were of the modest percentage allocated to the governorates in the three-year budget, compared to 8 trillion dinars in the food security law, which is a financial supplement and not a budget.

On these developments, the source says, "The new date for approving the budget, after the failure of the previous dates, will be on May 25th (tomorrow, Thursday)."

And the last date may not be binding on the Finance Committee in Parliament, which believes that it may be postponed to next week.

Prior to that, it had been set for last May 17, according to a statement by the “State Administration,” and it was postponed to last Monday, and the committee did not finish resolving the differences.

It does not seem understood until now the reason behind the objections of the political forces and the coordination framework to the budget, which was supposed to have discussed the budget before sending it to parliament for many hours.

Some of the leaks that reached Al-Mada indicate that what happened can only be interpreted as "a political objection that escalated with fears of the expansion of Al-Sudani and the imminence of local elections."

According to Ahmed al-Asadi, Minister of Labor, the budget was presented to the coordination framework, the State Administration coalition and the Council of Ministers before it went to Parliament.

Al-Asadi said in an interview with one of the local stations that the budget was discussed for 3 hours in the State Administration Coalition and more than once within the coordination framework (each meeting is no less than 3 hours), and 6 hours in the Council of Ministers, which includes ministers representing political parties.

Al-Asadi stressed that "every political party had sent notes and comments on the draft law, and it was included in the budget."

The rise of Shiite objections to the budget coincided with news of the prime minister's move to make alliances outside the coordination framework with emerging parties.

News had circulated earlier, suggesting that al-Sudani would run alone with his party, the Euphrates Movement, in the local elections.

New additions to the budget

In addition, the budget is still “under study,” according to Youssef Al-Kalabi, a member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, who said that changes were made after the meetings this week.

And he stated in a statement to the official agency that the recent changes are “in transferring allocations from one ministry to another or from one ministry to a governorate, especially since there are substandard allocations.”

And he pointed out, “The committee was keen to include in the budget matters related to combating corruption and obliging ministers with regard to the issue of contracting and not collecting imports,” noting, “adding the semi-annual evaluation paragraph for the executive authorities within the budget.”

And the Parliamentary Finance Committee announced last Monday that it had discussed a number of budget items and voted on a paragraph related to the collection of fuel sales fees.

And the parliament stated in a statement that it had reviewed and reviewed: “The issue of leadership positions for those with the rank of general manager and the mechanism for granting them a five-year leave, or referral to retirement.”

And she added, “The committee voted at the same time on the item related to collecting fees for sales of gasoline, black oil and gas, and recording revenue for the state treasury, so that the selling price does not affect citizens, in addition to foreign travel fees.”

Later, Hussein Moanes, a member of the Finance Committee, announced that the committee voted to confirm contract holders who have two years or more of service, whether "paid or free."[/size]

And Moans indicated, according to platforms affiliated with the “framework”, that this is conditional on “the contractor continuing to work without interruption, regardless of the date of the contract or operation.”

And he indicated that among those included were “the awakening, lecturers and administrators in the education directorates, good news in Diyala, contracts of attribution to Umm al-Rubaie’in in Nineveh, and confirmation of Salah al-Din’s angels.”

In addition to "staff recruiting Muthanna Health Authority, the Elections Commission (election contracts), Sunni endowment guards, and 2019 lecturers."

The paragraph that was voted on also includes “contracting with veterinarians within the Veterinary Medical Graduation Law and according to the Ministry’s need.   LINK

The Parliamentary Finance Committee Confirms The Resolution Of Most Of The Budget Items In Preparation For A Vote On It

Iraq    2023-05-24  Today, Wednesday, the Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed that most of the budget items have been decided in preparation for a vote on it.

And the media department of the Council stated in a statement, "The Finance Committee, headed by Atwan Al-Atwani and the presence of its members, resumed a meeting to resolve some technical matters related to the Federal General Budget Law in preparation for submitting it to the House of Representatives."

And he explained, "The committee decided to visit a delegation of its members to the Ministry of Finance to see the files that need clarification, as well as resolving the file of lecturers and contracts after 10/2/2019, and the rest of the groups in order to adapt their conditions."

He added, "During the meeting, she hosted the head of the Martyrs Foundation, Abdul-Ilah Al-Naeli, regarding the work of the commission and its budget, while Al-Naeli reviewed a vision about the foundation's needs for financial allocations for the implementation of projects for the foundation's development and social programs."

And he continued, "A number of proposed items and materials were discussed in order to ripen them in a way that contributes to maximizing revenues, investing resources for the state treasury, establishing projects, as well as supporting farmers who use modern irrigation systems, and voting on them."

https://kirkuktv.net/AR/Details/15448

Parliamentary Finance Confirms The Resolution Of Most Of The Budget Items In Preparation For A Vote On It

Policy   2023-05-24 | 510 views  Alsumaria News – Politics   The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed today, Wednesday, the settlement of most of the items of the general budget in preparation for a vote on it inside the parliament dome.

And the media department of the House of Representatives stated, in a statement received by Alsumaria News, that "the Finance Committee, headed by Atwan Al-Atwani, and in the presence of its members, resumed a meeting to resolve some technical matters related to the federal budget law, in preparation for submitting them to the House of Representatives."

She added, "The committee decided to visit a delegation of its members to the Ministry of Finance to view the files that need clarification, in addition to resolving the file of lecturers and contracts after 10/2/2019, and the rest of the groups in order to adapt their conditions."

During the meeting, the committee hosted the "Chairman of the Martyrs Foundation, Abdul-Ilah Al-Naeli, regarding the work of the commission and its budget, while Al-Naeli reviewed a vision about the institution's needs for financial allocations for the implementation of projects for the development and social programs of the institution."

  According to the statement, the statement indicated, "The committee then discussed a number of proposed items and materials in order to ripen them in a way that contributes to maximizing revenues, investing resources for the state treasury, establishing projects, as well as supporting farmers who use modern irrigation systems, and voting on them."   LINK

At A Cost Of 400 Billion.. More Than 100 Parliamentarians Are Calling For Adding The Seawater Desalination Project To The Budget (Documents)

2023-05-23 Shafaq News/ More than 100 members of the Iraqi Parliament demanded, on Tuesday, to add a paragraph for the sea water project in Basra Governorate within the general financial budget.

According to documents signed by 105 parliamentarians, they demanded that 400 billion dinars be allocated for the seawater desalination project to implement the Al-Faw thermal station with a production capacity of 3000 megawatts.

This comes at a time when the Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia'a al-Sudani, called at the beginning of May for an "urgent" international intervention to address the low water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, while affirming his government's intention to go to "desalinate" sea water.

It is noteworthy that Iraq suffers from water scarcity as a result of the lack of rain and the decrease in water revenues in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which affected the agricultural plan for the current season, which shrank to 50% from what it was during the last season.   LINK