“Financial battle” next Monday … Baghdad and Erbil: hold on and excluded
Baghdad – NNC… Despite the House of Representatives setting the date for voting on the 2021 budget bill, “political pressure” is still the most prominent player in passing the law or not, especially after the Federal Court Act turned into a “pressure paper” by some political parties, but on the other hand. The State of Law Coalition finds it difficult to pass “suspicious deals” and that the budget will pass by the majority of “number” and not “consensuses”.
The disagreements over the draft budget and the Kurdistan region’s share in it in return for not paying what it owed to the federal government are not a result of the moment, and go back to years ago, but they were evident at the end of last year during the parliament’s vote on the law on financing the fiscal deficit, which was passed without the Kurds voting on it, and about the possibility of re- This experience in the current draft budget, the deputy of the Kurdistan Islamic Union Jamal Cougar says that “it is difficult to pass the budget in next Monday’s session without political consensus with the Kurdish blocs.”
And he adds to the “National News Center” that “there are political parties that have linked the vote on the budget law and the law of the Federal Court,” stressing that “those parties hinted that the Federal Court law would not be passed if the budget was passed in Monday’s session.
On the latest agreements between Baghdad and Erbil, Cougar explains that “we do not have a problem with the government text in the budget law, but the Shiite blocs rejected that text,” adding, “It recently reached a new legal text requiring the receipt of oil imports for 460 thousand barrels.”
For many years, the governments of Baghdad and Erbil have not reached any agreement regarding oil and non-oil revenues, and the central government often demands the regional government to hand over the revenues to the state treasury, but without this being achieved.
Many of the region’s delegations arrived in the capital, Baghdad, with the aim of discussing the agreements between the two parties, and meetings usually take days, the last of which was the delegation that arrived in Baghdad in late January, and stayed in Baghdad for more than 20 days, with the aim of reaching solutions that satisfy all parties regarding the budget.
In addition, the deputy from the State of Law coalition indicated that Alia Nassif said in an interview with the “National News Center” that “the heads of political blocs are embarrassed by the lack of agreement with the region regarding the passing of the budget.”
She added that “it is difficult to pass any suspicious political agreements,” asserting that “we have collected 150 signatures within Parliament to include the Budget Law in the next Monday’s session.”
She pointed out that “passing the budget in Monday’s session will be by a numerical majority and not political consensus, in case it passes.”
Yesterday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives directed that the budget bill be included in next Monday’s session, based on a request submitted by Representative Youssef Al-Kalabi signed by 150 deputies.
The leader of the State of Law coalition, Nuri al-Maliki, said on the current March 6, regarding the 2021 budget bill, that the issue is a rights issue, and the government does not have the right to seize a right for the region or the provinces.
And the budget – to my knowledge – still contains many forms related to the region regarding the amount of oil that must be delivered, and the amount of money that should be given in addition to the previous debts and the debts owed, and I do not think that it will pass, and MPs have informed me of their refusal to pass the budget unless the number of barrels that are proven The region must hand it over.
Confusion was raised about the budget and the Kurdistan region’s share in it, against the background of the arrival of the draft budget law to the House of Representatives from the Council of Ministers, And it was represented that the budget of the region exceeds the budgets of the governorates of the south combined, according to statements by some representatives, as well as the lack of commitment of the region to pay Baghdad’s oil dues and revenues from the border outlets, which formed an objection to consensus to pass them.