Parliamentarians and professionals propose solutions to overcome the financial crisis
Baghdad / Although there is no government proposal to reduce the salaries and allocations of employees and retirees, a number of deputies and specialists have confirmed that this step, if implemented, will pose a threat to the stable situation of the government at the present time, especially as it has immediate options during which the salaries of employees for the months of June and July can be secured,
Among these options are:
(1) internal borrowing, as well as controlling revenue from border crossings, and calling on telecom companies, as well as the Kurdistan region, for their debts.
The decision of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Dr. Ahmed Al-Saffar asserted in an exclusive interview with Al-Sabah: that “prejudice to the employees’ salaries in light of the circumstances that Iraq is going through today in the face of Corona and the economic recession is very dangerous to government stability, especially since this crisis will not exceed more than two months, Oil prices are on the rise and the global economy is beginning to regain its vitality again. “He added,” Borrowing from the central bank’s reserves for two months of quick solutions that can be compensated and returned easily and at low interest being short-term “, pointing out that”
(2) internal borrowing is better than external borrowing, which depends On very large terms and benefits, the government may be exhausted at a later date. ”
Al-Saffar notes:
(3) “the government should exclude unnecessary expenditures related to large allocations and other matters related to petty cash and protections, which also constitute a waste of public money,” noting that “the state has from 20 to 30 items of revenue that do not enter the budget due to corruption starting with border crossings and customs And the state’s real estate,
(4) so the financial system must be re-established, move away from monetary policies, deal with cache, and rely on the electronic automation of payment, in addition to resorting to the biometer until the state gets rid of the burden of multiple salaries, and we need to review salaries and put a new ladder for them.
In order that the state would not be exposed to more crises, Al-Saffar stressed
(5) “the restructuring of the financial system for public revenues, as well as the disposal of the rentier system that relies on unstable oil revenues and dependence on diversification of resources such as agriculture, industry and tourism, and that Iraq is an importer.”
Real-time proposals
In the absence of acceptance by the legislature of prejudice to the salaries of employees; Member of the Parliamentary Investment and Economic Committee, Dr. Nada Shaker Jawdat,
(6) proposes to monitor and prevent the currency auction in the Central Bank, which the MP counted during her talk to Al-Sabah as a “smuggling of hard currency outside Iraq, as well as reducing the salaries of the three presidencies to overcome the crisis.”
Jawdat calls the Prime Minister, “to immediately freeze the Rafha law, to issue a law to that effect, and to transfer money to the employees sector to confront the crisis instead of deducting their salaries that are a right of their rights,
(7) to adopt the electronic system of border ports and ports, whose resources are estimated at the amount of oil revenues that can feed salaries instead of Borrowing, because Iraq does not need a heavy financial and political burden for it to borrow. ”
Real risks
And economist Dr. Faleh Al-Zubaidi said in an exclusive interview with Al-Sabah: “There are many border outlets that are not affiliated with the state and that most of its resources go into the pockets of the corrupt.”
(7) He stresses that, according to specialists, Iraq imports $ 40 billion annually that the state can impose on it. Taxes and customs duties and provide revenues, even if they are at 10 percent. Al-Zubaidi states, “The state at this time must be firm in recovering debts from communication companies (Asia, Zain and Korek), especially since there is favoritism and a delay in paying the debts, just as the state must ask the Kurdistan region for debts that have not been recovered from it, especially since the region’s sales For oil exceeds 700 thousand, and the share of Iraq is 250 thousand. ”
Al-Zubaidi asserts that
(8) “Iraq is already going through a financial hardship as a result of the decline in oil revenues, so the state can seek the assistance of the foreign reserves of the Iraqi Central Bank, but it has a great risk, especially as the central bank uses these reserves to control the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, and lack of control will increase From inflation rates and high prices,
(9) as there is another way through issuing a new cash, i.e. currency printing,
which the government can resort to, except that it has risks and also leads to inflation and affects significantly the owners of fixed and limited income, so it also constitutes a risk,
(9) except that the effects of borrowing The interior is
less dangerous than foreign borrowing, such as borrowing from the World Bank fund or from countries that will curtail the Iraqi economy because of the conditions that follow the political position on which the donor country depends. He added,
(10) The borrowing money from foreign countries must go to investment, not for consumption, so that we can pay those sums from investment projects, but that these funds go to consumer sectors, Iraq will remain reimbursed from the oil revenue sold instead of using it to benefit the country.”
Law and withholding
(11) From a legal point of view, the legal expert, Tariq Harb, confirmed in a special statement to Al-Sabah that “the salaries law has been in effect since 2008 and it cannot be deducted except by issuing a law. In disposing. Noting that “deduction of salaries does not constitute one-fifth of the allocations that the general directors of the Council of Ministers and others take, so we demand the deduction or reduction of those allocations for justice.”