An economist reveals the terms of the reform paper that the Ministry of Finance is working on
Today, professor of economics at Basra University, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, revealed some items of the economic reform paper called (the White Paper) that the Ministry of Finance is working on to reform the Iraqi economy.
Al-Marsoumi said, in a post on Facebook, which Al-Rasheed followed him, “As I expected in previous publications that the government reform paper will not deviate from the IMF policies and austerity measures with high social costs.”
He added, “This can be seen by looking at some of what was mentioned in the reform paper that the government called white, as follows:
1- Reducing the wage and salary bill from 25% of GDP to 12.5% within three years.
2- Reforming the retirement fund so that it is not linked to the budget, and retirement salaries are paid directly from the fund.
3- Reducing financial support for state-owned companies by 30% every year for a period of three years.
4- Reducing total government support from 13% of GDP to 5% within three years.
5- Restructuring the public salary scale by stopping new employment and replacement operations in the public sector.
6- Setting a higher ceiling for employees ’salaries to achieve justice and reduce differences.
7- Applying income tax to employee allowances, incentives, bonuses, and others.
8- Reviewing fuel subsidies for state-owned oil companies. The proceeds from the sale of black oil should be returned to the state treasury.
9- Issuing national bonds and instruments and offering them for public circulation on the Iraq Stock Exchange.
10- Studying the current exchange rate of the dollar against the dinar and taking into consideration the requirements of financial and monetary stability and achieving the competitiveness of the Iraqi economy.
11- Restructuring the state-owned public companies and converting them into private companies.
12- Correcting the defect in the ration card system to ensure the protection of people with limited income and withholding it from families whose income exceeds a certain ceiling.
13- Ensure that all workers in the public, private, mixed and cooperative sectors are included in retirement benefits.
14- Completing the Social Insurance Law in order to be a substitute for the unified retirement, retirement and social security laws for workers