Parliament discusses monetary policy and amend the bill of the budget of 2019
(Baghdad: Al Furat News) The House of Representatives discussed in its 13th session held under the chairmanship of Mr. Mohamed Halboussi, Speaker of the House of Representatives on Monday, in the presence of 234 deputies, monetary policy in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank and the amendment of the federal budget for 2019 with the participation of the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs .
A statement by the Information Department of the House of Representatives, received the agency {Euphrates News} copy of it, at the outset of the session Jassim Mohan al-Bekhati was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives after the vote to add this paragraph to the agenda.
President Halabousi discussed the topics of improving the ration card items and the decisions of the previous government during the period of the conduct of business and related to Najaf airport in the next session.
The Council voted on the formation of a fact-finding committee on the security events in Ninewa province, which includes deputies of the province and those who wish to ladies and gentlemen MPs.
The Board discussed the presence of Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank and members of the Board of Directors and Mr. Faisal Al-Hims, Director of the Iraqi Bank for Trade, Monetary Policy.
At the beginning of the hosting, the President of the Council welcomed the attendees to discuss the financial and monetary situation and the work of the Central Bank, praising the success of the Central Bank in addressing the economic challenges and face the financial crisis, pointing out the existence of problems in need of quick fixes.
In his speech during the meeting, Mohsen Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank, stressed that the bank was able to urge the pace and efforts to confront financial crises with minimal damage and better than expectations. And initiatives in the first strategy full of visions and objectives to address the vacuum and backwardness of the tremendous developments experienced by the bank and the banking sector for periods of time.
He explained that the approved plan was real and measured by a careful follow-up by a specialized department in the Central Bank to follow up all the developments that took place and included the introduction of jobs and tasks that developed within the body of the Central Bank after the introduction of several departments in it, noting the launch of a lending initiative of 6 trillion dinars for the industrial sector, And the real estate, which amounted to about 2 trillion and 500 billion dinars for the last two sectors as well as to achieve financial stability in light of the current challenges, which was reflected in the provision of salaries to employees and corporate dues during the past years, noting that inflation did not exceed 2% in a thousand Rh recent Iraq has become part of the international standards followed in this regard.
As for the building of the Central Bank of Iraq has been between the relations that the project seemed before assuming office, specifically in 2010 through the contract with the Office of Architecture Zaha Hadid directly, the new building has special specifications and advanced electronically.
In turn, Walid Aydi Abdul Nabi, a consultant at the Central Bank, pointed out that the bank studied the tenders submitted by 4 foreign companies and after a series of meetings by consultants in the bank was referred to an Azerbaijani company, pointing out that the Economic Affairs Committee decided to exclude the building of the Central Bank of the provisions of government contracts And to recommend to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers for the purpose of presenting the vote in the Council of Ministers being outside the competence of the Economic Committee, noting that the estimated cost of the project amounted to about 823 million dollars, while the negotiated cost was reduced to 772 million dollars, The company has a long history in executing projects in a number of countries in the world.
Al-Alak said in response to a question about the causes of corruption of 12 billion dinars, that the damage was before the ascension of the position when the coffers of the Rafidain Bank to sink because of heavy rains in 2012 and caused damage to the banknotes after the arrival of water to the stores, explaining that the Central Bank to exchange currencies at And the imposition of a certain fine on the management of Rafidain Bank has been reduced after considering what was spent and fate, especially that these securities outside the age of time, noting that the Central Bank lost the cost of printing banknotes and it represents nothing much, although the amount was up to 7 billion dinars With a much lower value than that, as well as an international certificate of cash management.
He pointed out that the reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq is different from the government reserves, noting that the government reserves result from the surplus achieved by the Ministry of Finance, which happened in the years before 2012, where the reserve reached in 2012 to about $ 20 billion decreased after the deficit to small amounts.
The Governor of the Central Bank that the reserves of the bank currently higher than the previous, which reached in 2014 about 66 billion dollars, while the reserve currently about 61 billion dollars, as well as the existence of $ 15 billion debt to the Central Bank of the government to finance the budget deficit, To buy Treasury remittances and financial bonds from the market, especially that the oil revenues did not exceed the net about $ 2.5 billion per month while salaries 4 billion per month, which could lead to the collapse of the economic situation, which imposed the intervention of the Central Bank, noting that the adequacy of the reserve in Iraq according to international standards Currently 169% of the Expected to arrive after two months to about 180% and the size of the Iraqi currency traded in the market amounted to 43 trillion dinars.
The interventions and inquiries of the ladies and gentlemen during the discussion focused on the importance of good management of financial reserves and clarification of how to act in foreign currency from the oil resource and the amount of remittances abroad and the expected savings from foreign currency at the end of the year in addition to knowing the disbursement of $ 21 billion of the financial reserve, which was $ 81 billion And to go to 60 billion dollars later as well as the reasons for resorting to the purchase of commercial papers with the feasibility statement of opening foreign banks without providing any economic benefits.
In his reply, the central bank governor pointed out that the relationship between deficit and monetary policy will be present in the debate of the House of Representatives on the budget, calling for the participation of the Central Bank in the meetings of the House of Representatives on the federal budget.
Then the Presidency of the Council decided to postpone the completion of the discussion of the subject of the Central Bank until after the hosting of the State Budget Committee.
The Council hosted the Governmental Committee on the Draft Federal Budget Law of the Republic of Iraq for the fiscal year 2019, headed by Finance Minister Fuad Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and his accompanying delegation.
The First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Hassan Karim al-Kaabi, during his presiding over part of the session, welcomed the government delegation to discuss the budget.
In his speech during the hosting, the Minister of Finance stressed that the budget was prepared by the previous government in accordance with different visions of the current government views on construction and investment, noting the importance of time by the government and the House of Representatives to resolve the budget, adding that the government is about to introduce a new philosophy of the economic situation is Private sector investment and investment.
The Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister for Financial and Economic Affairs to the readiness of the Committee to deal positively with the proposals of the deputies for the purpose of maturing the budget, and expressed his willingness to cooperate with the House of Representatives and the Finance Committee in the Council through holding joint meetings to gather ideas to benefit from them after being put to the Council of Ministers and discuss the possibility The amendment of the budget, noting the existence of a proposal to assign a staff member the task of coordinating between the ministry and the House of Representatives.
Finance Minister Fuad Hussein said that the draft budget is still a project that requires continuous discussion by ministers, which requires its end within two weeks, pointing out that the government is prepared not to change the budget within the available means and in harmony with the vision of the House of Representatives.
For his part, Maher Hammad, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance to the adoption of the price of oil $ 56 and exports of 3 million and 880 thousand barrels, as well as the presence of 7 trillion dinars, current expenditures increased from last year in addition to increasing investment expenditures and allocate 4 trillion dinars in the area of support in various areas such as ration card and farmers And an increase in regional development allocations and petrodollar projects.
The interventions of Ladies and Gentlemen focused on the affirmation that the budget prepared the mind of the previous government and adopted on the austerity and demands of the Council represents the needs of the Iraqi street, asking about the objectives of the budget prepared and mechanisms to adopt the price of a barrel of oil $ 56 despite the increase in oil prices and rebuilding the budget again Consistent with the vision of construction.
The interventions included knowledge of the reasons for the recalculation of the Kurdistan region’s proportion of approximately 12%, while the existence of estimates from the Ministry of Planning indicate that the proportion of the region up to about 14%, pointing out that the budget of 2019 does not build the economy of the country and differ from the curriculum of the government, put forward by Mr. Prime Minister, demanding By allowing the private sector to manage the state and manage the economy.
The interventions dealt with the reasons for not allocating a logical budget to the affected governorates and not taking into account the suffering of the people of those provinces with the need to treat Halabja governorate as an independent province, encouraging investment and private sector, providing loans and developing non-oil revenues, and increasing regional development projects as the best solution to eliminate unemployment, Of the value of barrels of oil to support the ration card, and the quest to install all contracts and wages daily, especially in the Ministry of Electricity and work to grant the Kurdistan region share according to the benefits and pay the dues of farmers.
Article Credit: http://alforatnews.com/