Iraqi Parliamentary Finance committee stresses importance of addressing the large budget deficit

Economy 09:41 PM - 2021-01-09
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The Iraqi Parliamentary Finance Committee identified a number of basic points in the paragraphs of the draft Iraqi federal budget law for 2021.

 

The committee had held a meeting earlier on Saturday, to discuss the draft federal budget law for the current year 2021.

 

Iraq, which largely relies on oil sales, is facing large budget deficit due to the drop in oil prices as a result of the corona pandemic, where the Iraqi government has deducted government employees salaries, as well as a currency devaluation by almost 20% in the yet to be voted on 2021 budget to address the problem.

 

On the matter, the Parliamentary Finance Committee said in a statement reported by the Media Department of the Council of Representatives that it held a meeting chaired by Haitham Al-Jubouri, Chairman of the Committee and in the presence of members, in which it began its discussions of the draft Federal Budget Law for 2021.

 

The committee identified, according to the statement, a set of basic points in the paragraphs of the budget law, the most important of which is the large deficit rate and the deductions imposed on employees' salaries and the size of financial allocations to the provinces.

 

The Parliamentary Finance Committee stressed the importance of addressing the large deficit in the budget, taking into account the situation of the Corona pandemic and not fully relying on the current oil prices as they are subject to change, as well as taking into account the financial allocations ratios for the governorates, taking into account the degree of deprivation for each governorate.

 

Discussion of the 2021 Iraqi budget bill in parliament

 

On Saturday evening, a parliamentary source told PUKmedia that the Iraqi parliament has ended conducting the first reading of the draft federal budget law for the year 2021 and raised the meeting to next Monday.

 

MP Hussein Narmo, a member of the Council of Representatives from the PUK bloc, said in a previous statement to PUKmedia that the Council of Representatives began holding its 33rd session headed by Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi.

 

He added: The session includes one paragraph, which is to conduct the first reading of the draft federal budget law for 2021, indicating that the quorum for the session has been achieved.

 

The Kurdistan Region's share in the Iraqi budget bill

 

The Iraqi Government and the KRG had been in dispute over the 2021 budget where the Iraqi Government was refusing to add the share of the Kurdistan Region citing that the KRG is not committed to the previous agreements.

 

Last December Mr. Qubad Talabani, Deputy Prime Minister of the KRG, announced reaching an agreement with the Iraqi Government after two weeks of negotiations between KRG delegation, headed by Mr. Qubad Talabani, and Iraqi officials in Baghdad.

 

According to the budget bill that was sent to the Iraqi parliament after its been approved by the Iraqi council of ministers, the Kurdistan Region's share is 12.67% on conditions that the Kurdistan Region must deliver a daily 250,000 barrels of oil to the Iraqi oil marketing company SOMO and 50 % of non oil revenues to the Iraqi government.

 

 

 

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