Parliament begins a controversial law and cancels paragraphs containing new loans

[size=52]Parliament begins a controversial law and cancels paragraphs containing new loans[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The House of Representatives continues its efforts to pass the emergency food security support bill, and it has deleted articles that grant the government the right to obtain internal and external borrowing.[/size]
[size=45]However, some parliamentary circles are afraid of the law, and prefer to wait until the budget is approved, given that the caretaker government does not have the right to submit projects to Parliament, in addition to allegations that it contains texts that lead to a waste of public money.[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, the House of Representatives finished reading the report of the emergency food security and development bill, which experts confirmed as an alternative to the budget after it became very difficult to pass it during the current year.[/size]
[size=45]According to a statement by Parliament received by Al-Mada, “the bill will support the creation of a special account that authorizes the government to support food security and development through excess funds,” noting “the necessity of maturation of the project and taking a number of observations and amendments before submitting it to the parliament for a vote.”[/size]
[size=45]This comes as the Parliamentary Finance Committee held a meeting with the Presidency of Parliament with the aim of discussing the project and its dimensions. Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi said during the meeting, which was attended by (Al-Mada) correspondent, that "the necessity requires legislation of the emergency support law for food security, as it addresses the problems facing the country in the current circumstance, especially with the high prices and the damage caused to the fragile and poor segments."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Halbousi added, “Parliament stresses the importance of providing legal cover for its legislation and amending important texts,” while revealing “a directive to host the Governor of the Central Bank, Mustafa Ghaleb, and those concerned to discuss the necessary measures.” For his part, a member of the Finance Committee, Hassan Al-Kaabi, stated during the meeting, that "the emergency food security support law is required when global conditions, wars, crises, food shortages and the rapid rise in oil prices."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kaabi added, "The House of Representatives, taking into account the people's demand from the legislative authority, to preserve their resources in the ration card and to be real in its vocabulary in order to reach the citizen as required within the specified allocations." He pointed out, “The agreement between the members of the Finance Committee, and after the approval of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to cancel the internal and external borrowing paragraph in the law, which is related to granting the government the authority to borrow 20 trillion in two stages, and 10 trillion in each stage.” Al-Kaabi spoke about the importance of “allocating the abundance resulting from the rise in oil prices to confront poverty and enable food and strategic storage of wheat.” Al-Kaabi called, "the current and future governments to preserve the entitlement of generations through the establishment of sovereign funds."[/size]
[size=45]In addition, Representative Hassan Al-Sabri, in a statement to (Al-Mada), stressed "the importance of the law, given the circumstances that Iraq is going through." Al-Sabri said, "The question that should be asked now is whether the caretaker government should submit such laws to Parliament, because Article 42 of the Cabinet's bylaw prevents the government from sending draft laws."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "granting the authority to the caretaker government to raise such projects means, a fortiori, that the draft budget law, which includes an integrated schedule of revenues and expenditures, be presented."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sabri finds, "The Food Security Law was prepared in a hurry and involves many violations, with fears of a waste of public money."[/size]
[size=45]He did not hide "the presence of some positive aspects in the project, especially the issue of supporting the ration card and granting farmers their entitlements, but we believe that these articles are passed through the budget law."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sa'bri demanded that "amendments be made to the current draft and the removal of texts that contain a waste of public money in order for the law to be passed."[/size]
[size=45]Meanwhile, the representative of Basra, Abdul Amir Al-Mayahi, said in a press conference from inside Parliament yesterday, in the presence of (Al-Mada) correspondent, that "the food support law includes financial allocations equivalent to the budget allocations, if we remove salaries and consumer allocations from it."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mayahi added during the conference, which also witnessed the presence of a number of Basra representatives, that “the law includes sovereign and governing expenses, debt dues, interest, health and education support, electricity costs, development and support for farmers, and the basis of the law is to benefit from the financial abundance in oil.” He pointed out that “the provisions of the law empower the Minister of Finance with the authority to borrow externally and internally and to exempt projects covered by financing from taxes and fees.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mayahi pointed out that “Article 7 of the law gives the authority to accept grants and donations to ministries from foreign institutions and the private sector, and we do not know what this has to do with the issue of food security, lagging projects and development.”[/size]
[size=45]He stated, "The second article of the law determines the validity of the projects benefiting from it in the Ministry of Planning, taking into account the fairness of distribution and the proportion of the population. So what is the justice in this law." Al-Mayahi noted that "the rest of the financial allocations were distributed on the basis of 10 percent to pay off the external and gas debts and 5 percent to pay the costs of oil production and the same emergency allocations," wondering, "Where is the food security aspect of the law?"[/size]
[size=45]He continues, "There are many other vague articles that mean that the next government will receive a treasury empty of liquidity and financial abundance that will disappear in a few months, and the next government will face financial challenges and implement a program that is not planned by it." Al-Mayahi pointed out that “if the project is well thought out and considered as an amended version of the budget to go along with daily matters, but the quotas and partisan quotas are present on the sides of the law and its passage means that the politicians benefit before the people.” Al-Mayahi went on to point out the importance of “forming the government and passing the budget is better than this deception and deception, and there are signatures by more than ninety percent of parliament members on these observations and refuse to pass it in principle and it will be returned because it contains booby-traps and bombed paragraphs inside it, and we will work to return it to the government.”[/size]
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