"Parliamentary Finance" undermines the oil agreement with sudden amendments to the budget

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[size=52]"Parliamentary Finance" undermines the oil agreement with sudden amendments to the budget[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The Finance Committee in the House of Representatives blew up the oil agreement between the federal government and the Kurdistan region, by making amendments to the budget contrary to previous understandings, which makes the process of approving the law ambiguous, after the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the most prominent parties to the state administration coalition, threatened to withdraw from the voting session. If the committee does not amend its amendments.[/size]
[size=45]Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi had announced Saturday (yesterday) as the date for voting on the budget law, but after the recent changes and developments within the Finance Committee, his second deputy, Shakhwan Abdullah, revealed that the session was postponed until further notice.[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Finance Committee, Youssef Al-Kalabi, says, "The Finance Committee approved amendments to texts related to the Kurdistan region in the budget law."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kalabi continued, "The law will go to the vote in two formulas pertaining to the Kurdistan region, the first submitted by the government and the second developed by the Finance Committee, including Articles 11, 12 and 13."[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "The law, when presented to a vote, will be in two formats with regard to the paragraphs related to the Kurdistan region, and the deputies will be left to choose one of them, because the Finance Committee does not impose its drafting on the deputies, but it proposed amendments that members voted for in accordance with the rules of procedure."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kalabi pointed out, "The choice at that time will be for the representatives, as the decision that will be issued approving the budget with its 67 articles represents the will of the Iraqis."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "These amendments relate to three main axes. The first is the delivery of oil to the Federal Ministry of Oil for export or local use."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kalabi pointed out that “the second paragraph concerns the opening of an account in the central bank, in which Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani authorizes the regional government to dispose of the share of the Kurdistan region.”[/size]
[size=45]And he indicated, "The third axis is the management of the border file directly from the federal government and not jointly with the Kurdistan region."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kalabi pointed out that "the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was present at the vote, with the exception of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and its representatives in the committee, who are two deputies, left the session."[/size]
[size=45]He noted that "the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan voted on the amendments, while the representative of the Kurdistan Islamic Union objected to most of them and did not vote on them, except for what was stated in Article 12 related to employees' savings."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kalabi concluded, “A comprehensive review will obtain the budget schedules. This process may take two days at most, after which the project will be handed over to the Presidency of Parliament in order to set a date for voting on it.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Ali Al-Faili, stated that “the amendments that were made to the draft budget law by the Finance Committee are unconstitutional and are a coup against the agreement between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, and other agreements related to the formation of the government within the state administration coalition.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Faili continued, "The language used in the amendments is hostile towards the Kurdistan region and provocative, including the tendency to return 10% of the saved salaries, as this is a word of truth intended to be false."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The Kurdistan Regional Government then resorted to saving after it was forced as a result of Baghdad cutting the region's dues from the budget."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Faili explained, "If the federal government returns the money it cut, then the regional government will take the initiative to return what it withheld in compulsory savings."[/size]
[size=45]And he stressed, “The impossibility of voting on the budget by the representatives of the Kurdistan Democratic Party with these formulations.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Faili stated, "The agreements concluded with the federal government are studied and placed under the supervision of economic and oil experts from Baghdad and Erbil, and this led to a historic and satisfactory agreement for both parties."[/size]
[size=45]And he continues, “The two parties agreed that the region’s oil be exported through a committee that supervises this process, whose membership includes representatives of the Federal Marketing Company (SOMO) and the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan region.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Faili noted, "The committee's amendments confirm that the (SOMO) company is solely responsible for exporting oil, and this is a violation of the previous agreement."[/size]
[size=45]And he criticizes, “The placement of another article indicating that the outbreak of any dispute, regardless of the party that bears its responsibility, that the share of the Kurdistan region is stopped.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Faili considered, "These measures, if voted upon, are arbitrary and not based on justice and law, and cannot be allowed to pass in Parliament."[/size]
[size=45]And he stated, "The region is with the settling of old scores, and does not want to complicate the political scene, and the federal government, when it concluded the last oil agreement, is responsible for the state's general policy and knows the public interest."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Faili went on to call on "the parties that drafted the recent amendments to reconsider them and adhere to political agreements to prevent disagreements affecting the future of the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil."[/size]
[size=45]And independent MP Jawad Al-Yasari believes that “passing the budget depends on the implementation of political agreements between the components of the state administration coalition, as it has the highest number of seats in parliament.”[/size]
[size=45]And the leftist continued, “The occurrence of any abandonment of the agreements does not serve the public interest, especially since we may end the first half of this year without passing the budget.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "passing the budget for three years is what makes the situation more complicated, because each party wants to adhere to its demands in order to put it into practice."[/size]
[size=45]And the leftist concluded, that “the Kurdistan region’s dispute is not the only one over the law, because there are demands to raise the share of the provinces in the budget after the project set an amount for the development of the regions at about 2.5 trillion dinars, which angered the representatives of the provinces, especially the poor, given that these amounts are insufficient ».[/size]
[size=45]Parliament had finished the first and second readings of the budget, and is currently preparing to vote on the law, with amounts that are the highest in Iraq's history, amounting to 200 trillion dinars, and a very large deficit of 64 trillion dinars.[/size]
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