The decline in oil prices confuses the budget accounts.. and the Finance Committee: It will not be e

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[size=52]The decline in oil prices confuses the budget accounts.. and the Finance Committee: It will not be explosive[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The Finance Committee in the House of Representatives stated that the decline in oil prices will force Iraq to approve a regular budget after it was planning an explosive one, and talked about five reasons that delayed voting on the project in the government until now, including political differences.[/size]
[size=45]Committee member Jamal Cougar said, "The government was supposed to send the draft budget law to the House of Representatives before the end of the legislative term."[/size]
[size=45]And Cougar continued, “The parliament, and for this reason, had extended its legislative term by one month, hoping that the law would reach it, but that did not happen, and it had no choice but to go to a one-month recess that ends on the ninth of next January.” He pointed out, “The delay in sending the draft budget law was for several reasons, the first of which was that the formation of the government was delayed until the end of last October.”[/size]
[size=45]Cougar explained, “The amended Federal Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019 stipulates that sending the budget to Parliament must be on October 15, but the government was formed about two weeks after this date.”[/size]
[size=45]And he stated, “The second reason is that the government is still new and has a ministerial curriculum, and it needs time until the budget is formulated in a way that is consistent with this approach,” stressing that “the third reason is the political differences between the federal government and the Kurdistan region.”[/size]
[size=45]Cougar talked about “a fourth reason, represented by the political debate between the blocs that make up the State Administration Alliance that forms the government,” stressing that “every political bloc looks at the budget as an integral part of the ministries it obtained in this government.” And he stated, "The last reason, which has confused the government's work in recent times, is represented by the drop in global oil prices. After the barrel was at $98, it is now $76." And Cougar continues, “It was expected that a barrel of oil would be included at a price of 75 dollars in the budget, and this decrease, which occurred by about 20 dollars, confused all accounts.” And he added, "The government draft budget has not yet determined the price of a barrel of oil, especially since the decline in prices coincided with decisions issued by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) through which it reduced the quantities sold." Cougar believes that “talk about approving an explosive budget has become a thing of the past in light of the new oil prices,” expecting that “the budget will be normal, but it will not fall under the economic pressure that Iraq went through during the year 2021.” And he considered, “The deficit that the budget will bring is planned and not real, and it will not be large, provided that the federal financial management law is adhered to, which stipulates that the deficit may not exceed 3% of the national product, which was estimated in Iraq at 250 billion dollars,” adding that “the deficit is according to this.” The output should range from 7 to 10 billion dollars.”[/size]
[size=45]Cougar stressed, “The government cannot fulfill any promise, especially in terms of job grades, unless it is included in the budget law, and what is being talked about at the present time is just ink on paper; Because he did not obtain the financial allocation for its implementation.[/size]
[size=45]And he added, “The constitution mandated the government to provide job opportunities, whether in the private or public sector, for citizens, so it either goes to support the private sector by creating many job opportunities, or it goes to launch job grades.”[/size]
[size=45]Cougar added, "The budget will eventually reach Parliament, and next year will witness its approval in coordination between the blocs that formed the government."[/size]
[size=45]And the Finance Committee had previously expected that the total amounts of the budget law for next year would be about 130 trillion dinars, or a little more than that, while it was likely that the deficit would be about 10 trillion dinars.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, another member of the committee, Representative Mueen Al-Kazemi, stated that “the blocs affiliated with the State Administration Alliance had agreements regarding the formation of the government, and some of them related to approving the budget law and the materials contained in it.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kazemi added, "The draft law has reached its final stages after the Ministries of Finance and Planning completed all procedures regarding their projects." He pointed out, "The legislative recess will help the government focus more on the law, as this is a space of time that can be invested in order to love your project and make it more commensurate with the general situation."[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Kazemi concluded, that “all procedures have been completed, and only some points remain that are subject to discussion within the Prime Minister’s office, and we expect that they will be voted on within the government during the next two weeks, in preparation for referring them to Parliament.”[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the ministerial curriculum of the government of Muhammad Shia al-Sudani included a number of paragraphs, the most prominent of which is the acceleration of the preparation of the budget in order to provide services and attention to the investment aspect and the strengthening of state resources through diversification and not being satisfied with oil revenues, which today constitute more than 90% of the general revenue of the state.[/size]
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