The fate of the three-year budget is unclear: most of the allocations have not been spent and Parlia

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[size=52]The fate of the three-year budget is unclear: most of the allocations have not been spent and Parliament awaits the arrival of the 2025 schedules[/size]

[size=45]The House of Representatives is waiting for the government to receive the 2025 budget, and despite the general trend to pass it easily and not amend it significantly, as happened with the current year’s budget, the Finance Committee revealed that the two previous budgets, especially the investment budget, have not been fully disbursed yet, which is expected to happen with next year’s budget as well, for several reasons, most notably the lack of financial liquidity, according to representatives and experts.[/size]
[size=45]Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Jamal Kojer, says, “The Iraqi government has not disbursed the financial allocations for the investment budget for the year 2023 or 2024, until now, due to the lack of financial liquidity, the suspension of some projects due to the provincial council elections, and other reasons.”[/size]
[size=45]Koger added, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee is waiting for the arrival of the 2025 budget tables in order to review them and know the details of those tables and the expenditures in them. They will be studied well by the committee before voting on them, and we will certainly have the authority to amend those tables, through additions and deletions without any new financial additions.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “There is no specific time for the government to send the budget tables to the House of Representatives. They may reach us during the next month, and we will follow up on this with the responsible authorities in the Ministry of Finance and the Council of Ministers, to expedite sending the tables for voting on them before the end of the current year.”[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the Parliamentary Finance Committee revealed that it will discuss the 2025 budget next November, while stressing that employees’ salaries are fully secured.[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the budget for the current year has not been implemented nor has its funds been spent yet, despite warnings from specialists about the loss of confidence in the government’s ability to manage finances, causing economic, investment and political confusion as well.[/size]
[size=45]In mid-July, the issue of forgery or manipulation of the 2024 budget tables was raised between the House of Representatives and the Prime Minister’s Office, which sparked controversy and conflict in data and correspondence between the two parties. The story began when the Finance Committee said that some members of the Council had manipulated the budget tables after they were approved, and then sent to the Council of Ministers, indicating that investigations had begun into the issue.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, financial expert Ahmed Al-Tamimi says, “Iraq is suffering from a loss of financial liquidity, and therefore it was unable to implement all of the 2023 and 2024 budgets, and we do not believe that it will be able to implement all of the paragraphs and schedules of the 2025 budget.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Tamimi believes that “Iraq was facing a real financial crisis due to the decline in oil prices, and it was going to face a crisis even in the issue of paying employees’ salaries during the new year, but the repercussions of the recent Lebanon war led to a rise in global oil prices, and this achieved economic and financial benefits for Iraq, as it relies on financing its general budget from oil sales.”[/size]
[size=45]He does not expect “a fundamental change in the 2025 budget schedules, compared to the previous ones,” expecting “it to be passed by parliament easily, especially since the majority within parliament supports and backs the government, and is working to pass its plans without obstacles or opposition.”[/size]
[size=45]Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Moeen Al-Kazemi, had indicated that the 2024 budget tables came from the government with a spending volume of 211 trillion dinars, and came out of Parliament with a volume of 226 trillion dinars, noting that the change came in the following paragraphs: increasing the amount of the ration card by five trillion dinars, increasing oil revenues by five trillion dinars, reducing fees by five trillion dinars, and financial increases for the Ministry of Electricity and some governorates, as these increases mean increasing the budget deficit from 64 to 79 trillion dinars.[/size]
[size=45]On June 12, 2023, the House of Representatives voted on the Federal Budget Law for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, in an initiative that is the first of its kind in the country’s history in terms of the size of the budget as well as the number of fiscal years, with a value of 197 trillion and 828 billion dinars, with a financial deficit of 63 trillion dinars, or nearly a third of the budget.[/size]
[size=45]In addition, Member of Parliament Mukhtar Al-Moussawi explains that “Parliament and political forces in general do not know anything about the 2025 budget schedules, and they are waiting for it to arrive from the Council of Ministers, and there is no specific time for this arrival, and perhaps it will arrive at the end of next month or more than that.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Moussawi points out that “the Iraqi government has a financial surplus from the 2023 budget, as well as the year 2024, due to the oil prices fixed in the budget, which are less than the real price of selling oil. There is also a lot of money that the government has not spent on projects and other things, which confirms that there is no financial crisis, as some are trying to promote.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed that “amending the 2025 budget, which is expected to reach the House of Representatives during the coming period, is unlikely, as there is parliamentary confidence in the government’s financial and monetary policy plans, and therefore it will be passed without any obstacles or disagreements, as happened during the passing of the 2024 budget schedules.”[/size]
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