House of Representatives has finished reading two law and oral question to the Finance

The House of Representatives at its third session of the fourth parliamentary session of the third legislative year of the first legislative term, which was held under the chairmanship of Muhammad al-Halbousi, Speaker of the Council, ended on Tuesday the first reading of two laws, while he was briefed on the opinion The Ministers of Finance and Planning, after directing an oral question to them regarding the economic reform paper included in the domestic and foreign borrowing law.



A statement by the council, a copy of which {Al Furat News} received, stated that at the beginning of the session, the council postponed the vote on the proposal for the First Amendment Law of the Iraqi Commission for Approval (78) for the year 2017 submitted by the Economy, Investment and Finance Committees until the government’s opinion is taken regarding the financial aspect of amending the law .


For his part, the President of the Council directed each of the two committees concerned with approaching the Council of Ministers to express their opinion on the amendment of the Iraqi Accreditation and Response Authority Law for a period not exceeding a week. Otherwise, the House of Representatives proceeds to enact the law.

The Council ended the first reading of the draft law of the first amendment to the General Population and Housing Census Law No. 40 of 2008 submitted by the committees that monitor the implementation of the government program and strategic and legal planning in order to reconfigure the General Authority for the General Population and Housing Census in light of the changes taking place in the state’s administrative structure and granting the authority’s president the powers Necessary to conduct a general census of population and housing.


The Council completed the first reading of the proposed law to cancel the Revolutionary Command Council (dissolved) Resolution No. 218 of 2002 submitted by the Legal Committee in order to lift the unfairness of the employee who spent years of his life in compulsory service and the movements judged according to the laws of military service and consider that service for the purposes of bonus, promotion, retirement and cancellation The decision of the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council, which considered that service exclusively for retirement purposes.

Al-Halbousi called for the cooperation of the Financial and Legal Committees to deliberate on the proposal of a law to cancel the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council's decision before proceeding with the second reading to find out the financial obligations related to it.

In the general discussion section during the session, part of which is chaired by Al-Haddad, the interventions demanded to expedite the provision of job grades for degree holders and the appointment of the first to departments and colleges and serious consideration of the demands of those whose contracts have been canceled by the employees of the defense and the interior, and the call to activate the application of the Federal Service Law to ensure social justice among graduates and the legislation of the law The Federal Civil Service, and the executive authorities' request to launch financial allocations for the maintenance of external roads linking the governorates, in addition to expediting the completion of retirement transactions to pay their back dues, in addition to disbursing farmers ’dues and equitable mobilization of the Ministry of Defense, and the demand to respond to the demands of the protesting doctors and other medical personnel in appreciation of their efforts in Addressing the Corona pandemic.

Deputy Chairman of the Council Dr. Bashir Al-Haddad directed the Finance and Legal Committees to expedite the legislation of the Federal Civil Service Law and explain the reasons for the increase in the interest rate on loans allocated to retirees from the Rasheed and Rafidian Banks, which reached 20%.


In another matter, the Speaker welcomed the attendance of Ali Allawi, Minister of Finance, and Khaled Battal, Minister of Planning, to answer an oral question addressed to them by Representative Muhammad Sahib al-Darraji, member of the Finance Committee, in accordance with the bylaw of the House of Representatives to exercise its oversight role.


MP Muhammad Al-Darraji asked about the government's failure to submit the economic reforms paper within the 60-day period stipulated in the Domestic and Foreign Borrowing Law of 2020 in Article Seven, noting that the House of Representatives voted on the law on 6/24/2020.

For his part, the Minister of Finance explained that the economic reform program needs a long time to present it because the economic situation in Iraq is going through a critical situation due to the repercussions of previous cumulative economic policies that the Iraqi state passed since the 1950s in the last century and up to now, especially the legislation of the law on agricultural reform and the decisions of the socialist package in addition To the loss of the economic vision that weakened the private sector and made all the resources in the hands of governments, indicating that the current government suffers from a scarcity of funds that forced it to borrow internally and externally and cannot implement the presentation of the paper within the period specified by the law voted on, noting that a specialized team has been formed with a cadre consisting of 40 employees work continuously to work on preparing and submitting the required paper despite the current health conditions, indicating that the reasons for delaying its submission are technical and historical, setting the ceiling for the government’s submission of the first negotiable reform paper at the end of this month, while the reforms paper is presented in its formFinal in the middle of next month.

In turn, the Minister of Planning indicated that there are 6,250 projects under construction that need to provide 126 trillion dinars to complete them, and this large number of projects caused the failure to include any new project in the new budget law, explaining that the delay in completing the projects led to the failure to provide services to citizens, including the presence of 42 residential complexes Unaccomplished. It needs to be recounted accurately in order to begin its implementation, in addition to the necessity to devise a real reform plan to address the delay in implementing projects.


Commenting on the ministers' answer, MP Muhammad al-Darraji stressed the need to fully and not partially implement the legislated law, asking about the value of internal and external borrowing and the size of what was allocated to pay salaries or in the investment sector, as well as knowing the value of the exchange rate specified in the next budget.

Minister Allawi pointed out that there are three types of loans, including commercial that the Iraqi government has moved away from, borrowing from governments and the third by borrowing from international development institutions such as the World Bank and the Arab Fund for the purpose of investment, especially those related to the requirements of improving the electricity sector by activating previous economic agreements with my company. Siemens and General Electric, stressing the importance of reviewing the exchange rate so that the Iraqi economy enters the cycle of competition with the interest of the International Monetary Fund in the issue of the exchange rate, noting that the ministry received an amount of 15 trillion dinars in full to meet the needs of salaries.

For his part, the Minister of Planning stated that the Ministry had instructed to stop international obligations to pressure spending units, which led to the deprivation of some provinces of services, indicating the exception of some projects in the governorates that have funds to implement their projects without requiring them for additional funds until liquidity becomes available, stressing the importance of going to alternatives In allocating funds for vital projects to complete them, especially health institutions and residential complexes in the governorates, pointing out that the inclusion of any new project requires its inclusion in the federal budget law or meets any development gap.


And after MP Muhammad al-Darraji, he inquired about the feasibility of borrowing an amount of 5 billion dollars abroad, despite the lack of benefit from previous loans in meeting the needs, and knowing the extent of the continuation of the loan from the central reserve.

In his response, the Minister of Finance indicated that the need to borrow was to support the general budget and fill the financial deficit without giving support to investment projects, explaining that the trend to borrow from the International Monetary Fund comes because it has specific programs in support of countries suffering from financial crises, such as Iraq, with loans for a period of three Years on the condition that they are linked to administrative and financial reforms, pointing out that the government opened communication channels with the International Monetary Fund, because Iraq has no source for internal borrowing except the Central Bank of Iraq and the lack of accredited financial markets in Iraq, in addition to the fact that government banking institutions are overburdened with debts to the government to finance the financial deficit in Budgets and private banks do not have large financial financing.

The minister added that it takes 5 years to carry out concrete economic reforms by finding new alternatives for revenues, noting that the total debt represents 80 to 90 percent of the Iraqi national product, which amounts to 160 trillion dinars, including the debts of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia amounting to 40 billion dollars. The possibility of the Ministry of Finance to count the monetary mass in Iraq.


For his part, the Speaker of Parliament stressed the need to present any government move to negotiate any external loan to the concerned parliamentary committees before negotiating with foreign parties, pointing to the treatment of lifting the financial restrictions that the government had taken prior to contracts in the provinces that witnessed demonstrations and to allow financial spending units to proceed with them. , Expressing his thanks to the two Ministers of Finance and Planning for coming to the Council and answering the parliamentary question related to the implementation of the oversight role.


After that, it was decided to adjourn the session to next Thursday 9/10/2020


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I like the part in red......

Atleast they are talking about it!