Parliamentary government debate over the authority to change the exchange rate
Baghdad: Controversy continues and opinions are presented regarding changing the exchange rate of the dollar between executive government agencies and legislative bodies, while the latter, especially the Legal Committee, confirms that it can amend the Central Bank Law within 6 days, which is the dominant body over the validity of the decision on the exchange rate, government and other legal parties stress Only the ability or power of parliament to intervene in this matter, and that the matter is up to the Central Bank of Iraq “Exclusively.”
Member of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, Hussein Al-Aqabi, told Al-Sabah: “It is true that changing the exchange rate in the law is within the jurisdiction of the Central Bank of Iraq, but legalizing any expense or revenue is part of the legislative authority’s function, this principle is in the hands of the legislative authority, and the bank’s jurisdiction.
The Central Bank is a secondary jurisdiction that is not authentic. Parliament is the one who granted them this jurisdiction in the Central Bank Law, and Parliament can amend the law from A to Z within six days only. ”
He noted that “one of the central bank’s responsibilities is to maintain the stability of the Iraqi market economy, not to raise prices and exhaust the poor classes, as changing the exchange rate has caused harm to 60 percent of the Iraqi people, so the government must recognize the mistake and back down from this decision.”
On the other hand, the advisor to the Prime Minister for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, said in an interview with Al-Sabah: “The contradictions between the political blocs on the issue of changing the exchange rate of the dollar will affect the movement of supply and demand, which creates turmoil in the movement of the market, especially since this Expectations are not settled until now, “indicating that” the rise in prices is one-off and does not continue into the future, and I think that this (color information) is based on wrong expectations. ”
He pointed out that “the ways of importing continue without stopping, so expectations regarding the general level of prices will stop at a stable point, and the means of commodity supply are now wide open, whether in terms of financing or in fixed foreign currency in their rates to finance foreign trade in various forms, so I think that the rise Prices will stabilize in the future, and will not remain on this adverb”.