Parliamentary Finance: The discussions reduced the budget amounts to 196 trillion dinars

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[size=52]Parliamentary Finance: The discussions reduced the budget amounts to 196 trillion dinars[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The Parliamentary Finance Committee stated that the latest discussions on the budget reduced its amounts to 196 trillion dinars, and talked about allocating a large amount for the investment part in order to proceed with a number of projects, most notably electricity and the establishment of schools and hospitals, stressing the need to spend all this amount within the correct manner in order to achieve its goals.[/size]
[size=45]The head of the committee, Representative Atwan Al-Atwani, said, "The budget that the Council of Ministers intends to send to Parliament differs from its predecessors."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Atwani added, “A number of data impose themselves in order to legislate a different budget, most notably that last year did not witness the approval of the budget, in addition to the repercussions of the current situation.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The economic crisis that accompanied the Corona pandemic during the years 2020 and 2021, and the cessation of appointments, led to major problems."[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Atwani said, "The government made a large number of amendments to the law, after it was initially at an amount of 220 trillion dinars in light of the exchange rate of 1450 Iraqi dinars per dollar."[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "The Finance Committee had an opinion that this amount is very large and communicated with the relevant government agencies, especially since it has a deficit estimated at 70 trillion Iraqi dinars."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Atwani added, “The decision to reduce the exchange rate of the dollar to 1,300 dinars, based on a recommendation from the Central Bank, imposed on the government to reduce the budget amounts.”[/size]
[size=45]And he believes, “There are two dimensions in delaying the arrival of the budget to the first parliament, technical, given that we cannot vote on a law that carries a large deficit, so it has become necessary for the government to review investment and operational expenditures so that the gap is very small.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Atwani stressed that “the discussions reduced the budget to 196 trillion dinars, which is an amount subject to change during the coming period, with a deficit of 60 trillion dinars.”[/size]
[size=45]And he spoke, about “meetings between ministries regarding this amount in order to compress it more and reduce the deficit rate through economizing on expenditures, before the budget is voted on within the government and referred to Parliament.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Atwani concluded, “The other dimension is political, related to the dialogues between the federal government and the Kurdistan region, and it has reached advanced stages and is close to decisiveness.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, committee member Mueen Al-Kadhimi stated, “The budget will allocate 80 trillion dinars to the investment side, which is the largest amount set for this part over the past years.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kadhimi added, "The government, through the Ministry of Planning, will present a list of projects that it intends to implement, whether ongoing, new, or lagging."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The law of emergency support for food security and development, which Parliament voted last year, of which an amount of about 9 trillion dinars remains is another support for the investment budget."[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Kazemi indicated, "The government has prepared contracts with foreign companies such as Siemens and General Electric regarding electricity and is awaiting financial allocations in the budget."[/size]
[size=45]He stated, "There is an emphasis on education, building schools, completing hospitals and other projects."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kadhimi believes that “the amount that the law will allocate is sufficient to implement the introductions of these projects during the remaining months of this year, and thus the government will seriously start implementing its ministerial platform after approving the budget.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, "If the government is able to spend this amount allocated for investment in the right ways, then this is a good thing and an important development compared to previous governments."[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Kazemi continues, “The last budget that was legislated was in 2021 at an amount of 129 trillion dinars, but the government returned an amount of 20 trillion dinars that it could not spend.”[/size]
[size=45]And he stressed, “The importance of the government disbursing the sums within the investment part in order to achieve its goals, because the disbursement process for the operational part is self-evident, as it goes to salaries, whether for employees or social welfare and other aspects of operational spending.”[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Kazemi concluded, “The government may start discussing the law today, Tuesday, and we are waiting for it to be sent to Parliament and not to delay it so that we can complete the legislative process during the next month.”[/size]
[size=45]On a related note, economic academic Abd al-Rahman al-Mashhadani confirmed that “observers have not yet seen the budget law, as it is between the office of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani and the Ministry of Finance.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashhadani continued, “What the Finance Committee is talking about of a deficit amounting to 26% of the gross domestic product is contrary to Financial Management Law No. (6) of 2019, which stipulates that the percentage not exceed 3%.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, “The problem is big, and it is not correct to say that all oil revenues go to the Central Bank until it is converted into dinars, so part of it is government purchases and others to pay off debts and dues of oil companies.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashhadani spoke of "an expansion in expenditures, especially operational ones, which amount to more than 40 trillion dinars."[/size]
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