Parliamentary Finance Committee: There is no longer enough time to finalize this year’s budget, and the government is moving towards preparing the 2027 budget.
On Thursday, Hussein al-Daraji, a member of the parliamentary finance committee, ruled out the possibility of the Iraqi government being able to finalize the budget for the current year due to the delay in its formation, noting that the current trend is towards preparing next year’s budget.
Al-Daraji told Shafaq News Agency that the remaining time in the second half of this year is insufficient for the government to prepare the 2026 budget for approval by the House of Representatives, indicating that the government will work on preparing a draft budget law for 2027, expecting the draft to reach Parliament in October or November of next year.
He added that there is a government trend to make fundamental changes to the 2027 budget law, which will be completely different from previous budgets in terms of the methods of preparation, schedules, and determination of necessary expenditures.
The decision to move directly towards the 2027 budget comes in light of the accounting absurdity in approving the 2026 budget, the second half of which is about to end, as the state currently relies on the temporary disbursement mechanism at a rate of (1/12) based on the continuing financial management law from the previous three-year budget to finance employee salaries and governing operational expenses.
According to the Finance Committee, the joint approach between Parliament and the government of Prime Minister Ali al-Zidi has settled on focusing technical efforts to draft the 2027 budget with a completely new economic philosophy and expenditure schedules, with the draft to be sent to the House of Representatives at the end of this year to avoid a deficit and ensure its passage before the start of the new fiscal year.
It is worth noting that the government of former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani had prepared the outlines of the 2026 draft budget before leaving office, including extensive financial commitments, among them the issue of regularizing contracts and staffing levels. However, the draft was delayed due to the country entering the election and caretaker phase.
This financial vacuum was exacerbated after the current Prime Minister, Ali Faleh al-Zaidi, gained confidence on May 14 with a deficient cabinet (14 ministers out of 23), as political disputes and power-sharing caused a delay in completing the vacant portfolios (such as Interior, Defense and Planning) until next July, which paralyzed the executive branch’s ability to present a comprehensive budget law throughout the first half of this year.
Shafaq.com