Finally! .... A Budget Update! A Great CBI Article 

publishes the agenda of the parliament session next Tuesday

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The House of Representatives announced, today, Sunday, its agenda for Tuesday's session.

The media department of the House of Representatives stated in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The agenda of Tuesday’s session included 5 paragraphs, and the following is the text of the agenda:

The Video for this blogpost is below here:

First: Voting on the draft law ratifying the air transport services agreement between the Government of Iraq and the Government of the Russian Federation (Foreign Relations Committee), (2) articles.

The light

Second: The first reading of the draft law regulating the rights of the victims of Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital, the victims of Al-Naqa Center, and the victims of the Al-Hamdaniya incident. Committee of Martyrs, Victims, and Political Prisoners (Health and Environment), (3) articles).

Third: The first reading of the draft law amending the fifth amendment to the Civil Aviation Law No. 148 of 1974 (Transport and Communications Committee), (58) articles.

Fourth: The first reading of the draft law amending the first law of the Federal General Budget Law of the Republic of Iraq for the fiscal years (2023-2024-2025) No. 13 of 2023. Finance Committee).

Fifth: Report and discussion of the second reading of the draft law amending the first Civil Defense Law

No. (14) of 2013 (Security and Defense Committee, Legal Committee).

The session starts at 11:00 am.

 

 

 

 

more details 

In detail.. The Iraqi budget is subject to political and economic amendments on Tuesday

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The Finance Committee of the Iraqi Council of Representatives revealed, on Sunday, the details of amending the budget law included on the agenda of next Tuesday's session.

 

The agenda of the House of Representatives for Tuesday included the first reading of the draft law amending the first law of the Federal Budget Law of the Republic of Iraq for the fiscal years (2023, 2024, 2025) No. (13) of 2023.

 

Regarding these amendments, the committee member, MP Jamal Kocher, told Shafak News Agency, "The amendment to the budget law includes one paragraph, which is the cost of producing oil in the Kurdistan Region. The previous amount was very small, and after studying and discussing between the federal government and the regional government, they reached the conclusion that the estimate should be immediate to address and solve the problem, and it should be (16) dollars per barrel, until the final answer is obtained from the advisory committee specialized in determining production costs in coordination with the regional government and production companies operating in the fields."

 

Kocher added, "This amendment aims to solve the problem and re-export the Kurdistan Region's oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. There is a political agreement on this, and the political agreement stressed the necessity of solving this problem. Without the political agreement, this amendment would not have been presented in the House of Representatives, and it will be passed according to this agreement without any obstacles within the parliament regarding this increase."

 

For his part, member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Moeen Al-Kadhimi, explained that the paragraph amending the general budget law will be limited to Articles 12 and 13 related to the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports and revenues.

 

Al-Kadhimi explained that "Article 12, which will be amended in the budget law, relates to the costs of producing and transporting oil in the region, as the costs of producing oil differ in Basra and are calculated at $6 per barrel, while in the Kurdistan Region they are calculated at $20."  

He pointed out that "Article 13 of the budget law, which will witness amendment, relates to the region's oil exports and its export via the Turkish port of Ceyhan."

Al-Kadhimi pointed out the importance and emphasis on amending the budget law and voting on it before the end of the current legislative session, especially since the extended session will end on December 9.

Parliamentary Finance Committee reveals the content of the amendments to the General Budget Law

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more on the budget 

 

Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Moeen Al-Kadhimi, confirmed that the general budget does not need a vote or a new reading, as it was approved for a period of three years, explaining that the amendments proposed by the government are limited to Articles 12 and 13 only, which will be discussed and voted on in Parliament.

Al-Kadhimi pointed out that "Article 12 relates to the costs of oil production and transportation in the Kurdistan Region, while Article 13 is related to the resumption of oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan," stressing that "this file has been suspended for more than a year."

He added that "the amendments aim to address the difference in production costs, as they were calculated according to the three-year budget law, as is the case in Basra ($5-6 per barrel), while production costs in the region amount to more than $20 per barrel."

Al-Kadhimi stressed that "the government attaches great importance to reforming these two articles, to get out of the current impasse and end the embarrassment related to the disruption of oil exports." He stressed that "resuming exports through the port of Ceyhan requires joint work and consensus among the concerned parties."

Mazhar Saleh reveals details of the 2023 budget and the 2024 budget horizon

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The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed today, Sunday, that the three-year general budget for the year 2023 was hedged by a hypothetical price of $70 per barrel of oil produced, which resulted in a hypothetical annual deficit of 64 trillion Iraqi dinars.

Saleh explained in a statement to {Euphrates News} agency that "crude oil contributes less than 90% of the annual general budget, but the average price per barrel in 2023 reached $83, which covered the deficit and made the budget deficit-free."

Regarding the 2024 budget, Saleh pointed out that “the expected average price of a barrel of oil is about $75 per barrel, which requires some borrowing to support investment expenditures at a rate not exceeding 3% of the gross domestic product,” describing this as “the normal situation according to the principle of Iraq’s fiscal space.”

Assigning two international companies to study the Iraqi banking market

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The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohammed Salih, announced today, Sunday, that the government is in the process of owning a banking system based on the foundations of the competitive market, while he pointed out that two international companies have been assigned to study the Iraqi banking market.

Saleh told the official agency: "The government's strategy for banking reform began with the government banking sector under the supervision of the Prime Minister and is based on isolating government financial operations from the activity of developing the banking market, because the government banking sector in its current traditional form dominates 88% of the country's banking activity, which made government banking operations mixed with market activity."

He added, "We are waiting for the birth of a banking system owned by the government, but based on the foundations of a competitive market in providing banking services and achieving actual financial inclusion and digital financial inclusion, and in line with the digital payments policy that our country has been strongly pursuing for more than a year," noting that "the private banking sector is also going through an evaluation phase, and there are opportunities for voluntary mergers between more than one bank that has an international strategic banking partner."

He explained that "the objectives of banking reform in Iraq will end with a high integration that achieves competitiveness, homogeneity, compliance and governance within the Iraqi banking market, and achieves the integration of the national banking market with the global market," noting that "the entire issue is being closely followed by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani after assigning two international companies to study the Iraqi banking market and in accordance with a new vision that is consistent with the national economy's need for credit and investment and mobilizing the public's accumulated resources to ensure a more stable and efficient national income cycle."

As for the private sector, Saleh explained that “the launch of the philosophy of development partnership between the state and the private sector was embodied for the first time in the government granting sovereign guarantees to the private industrial sector to collect global loans to finance production lines for the most important industrial projects from the European Union countries and Japan, which lead the future of development, and at five levels of industries, starting with guaranteeing financing for infrastructure industries related to the development path, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and refining, and ending with important digital industries, without neglecting the interest in supporting the agricultural sector and farmers in protecting the country’s food security from the production of important strategic food crops.”

He stressed that "the government has not neglected to implement the national strategy for the private sector, which hopes that the private sector's contribution to the country's GDP will increase from 37% currently to more than 54% in the coming years, by providing opportunities to establish the private sector through supporting government development financing for it, whether through the Iraq Development Fund or the Riyada Bank (mixed sector) established by the Central Bank of Iraq to promote the role of the private sector in development and raise growth rates in its investments and contributions to the country's GDP, in accordance with the private sector development strategy that the government has been adopting for years."

MP: We need to extend the legislative term for 8 sessions and the budget is the top priority

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Representative, Mohammed Al Shammari, called for extending the legislative term for 8 sessions, while stressing that the federal budget for the year 2025 is the top priority.

Al-Shammari told {Euphrates News} that: "There are important laws suspended within the House of Representatives, some of which are controversial and others need to be passed to serve the people."

He added, "The controversial laws that were included in one basket are the Personal Status Law, the General Amnesty, and the Popular Mobilization. In addition to these laws, there are laws in all the drawers of the parliamentary committees, including the Security and Defense Committee, where the Intelligence Service Law and Diplomatic Passports Law are ready, but due to these differences, they were postponed.  "

Al -Shammari continued, "The Personal Status Law is not binding on all the Iraqi people, and everyone has the choice to choose the law that suits their situation."

Al-Shammari stressed "the need to extend the legislative term to 8 sessions to compensate for what we missed in the last legislative term, and for the Parliament Presidency to prioritize the laws according to the needs of the people." 
He added, "I believe that the issue of the federal budget for 2025 and its completion for the next fiscal year is of utmost importance, and the parliamentary circles have the determination to approve the budget schedules, and we hope that the law will be passed in the coming days."