Notes on the Iraq Budget 2018

Once again the digital method is broken down in the budget display. The budget should be a means of presenting the government's fiscal policy (and monetary) within clear and understandable objectives of the current and future directions of the government.

Iraq is in a financial crisis, especially after the collapse of oil prices since 2014, and the government should be audited as the level of oil prices will continue at rates not much different from what it is now, with the inevitability of instability, which often accompanies fluctuations in oil markets.

In early 2015, a vision was published about the 2015 budget and how to get out of the crisis and the steps needed for economic reform later. Three years on, and the calls for reform are frequent, we are still reeling in the same ark, and budgets continue to reflect a confusion that can not be seen as a useful strategic vision. The war on the duplicitous and the problems of displacement, and the problem of the federal government with the Kurdistan region are reasons for the awakening and boldness in the development of a strategy of salvation from the rentee state, not to be taken these problems, to their gravity, as hangers to justify the lack of vision.

Crises, wars, and even calamities are opportunities to mobilize people and governments to shake the dust of slippage and escape from volatile oil revenue families to start a rational step in the 2018 budget. The people who endure tragedies, poverty and displacement patiently and socially cohesive deserve our respect and negation of their right to reform. on him.

There is a reform that begins by saving the displaced and the poor (more than 40% of the population is poor) by referring part of the waste to areas where there is nothing but corruption, waste and forgery,

- Ration card.

- Social Welfare.

- Pricing of crude oil inside and floating product prices.

- Transfer of electricity to self-financing.

It is also necessary to begin to freeze the share of oil revenues allocated to the budgets for the coming years and to offset the need for the budget of non-oil imports, and to refer the increases in oil prices and export quantities to a multi-purpose sovereign fund to address the payment of budget deficit and debt settlement and preserve the rights of future generations.

(1): economic reform in Iraq 2015 - Adnan al-Janabi and Luai Khatib - Center for Research and Studies of Iraq - mobdii.org.

-1-

For budget details, the following can be identified:

First, the region's exports are not (250.000) barrels per day, as the production of the region is about (700.000) barrels per day and its internal consumption is about (150.000) barrels per day, the exports assumed not less than (450.000) barrels per day ).

A real reform in calculating domestic consumption and sales should begin as part of the budget. The Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Natural Resources in the region to sell crude oil for domestic consumption at international prices with a certain deduction based on the law on investment in refineries adjusted oil, and put amounts in the account of the Ministry of Finance and the liberalization of prices of oil products and salvation from corruption and looting between the production of well and sales stations Products. Domestic consumption is about 150.000 barrels per day in the region and 600,000 barrels per day in the rest of Iraq. The value of this production at today's prices is worth more than $ 35 million a day. It is lost on the treasury and lost to the people. It has a lot of corruption and mismanagement.

Second: The allocation of more than (7) trillion dinars for electricity, most of the debt, should be stopped at the end of 2018 and the transformation of electricity to an institution or body depends on self-financing with the right to borrow when needed, and finalize the budget. It is assumed that the Ministry of Electricity will complete the transfer of the levy to the private sector companies and achieve a 100% collection on production.

Third: It is possible in the budget (2018) to cancel allocations of the ration card (3.1 trillion dinars) and social welfare (more than trillion dinars), and transfer with a section of the proceeds of the sale of oil for domestic consumption to citizens in cash and directly and everyone on the principle of comprehensive income (U.B.I.). The text of the budget law for 2018 stipulates that the comprehensive base income will include in the future a specific portion of oil and gas revenues to be determined in subsequent budgets, 2019 and beyond, so that the people know that their right to oil and gas wealth under Article 111 of the Constitution will not Keep ink on paper.

Fourth: It is incomprehensible to mention the allocations of the Popular Struggle Authority within the allocations of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Schedule of Expenditures - section 3 - 2b). The Authority is part of the armed forces and must be financially linked to the Ministry of Defense, as well as the Peshmerga ' Fourthly, it is a percentage of the allocations of the federal ground forces of the Iraqi army to the Peshmerga forces according to the population ratios, as it is supposed to have a specific amount in the budget, and the designation of the Peshmerga has no constitutional basis.

Fifth: It is time to respect the Constitution and deal with the provinces that are not organized in the region in the same way that the region is treated especially after the legislation of the amended provincial law and the transfer of powers to the provinces, similar to the decentralization enjoyed by the region. All this is achieved by referring the allocations of the region and the provinces to their authorities directly without the intervention of the federal ministries.

The so-called (petrodollar) should not be left without specific numbers (Article II-I-5). Which had to be determined in advance, especially since these ratios were dealt with in the 2017 budget.

-2-

Sixth: It is not permissible to submit a table of loans in random installments without analyzing or clarifying their totals:

- Internal.

- External:

- international organizations

- Governments

- Companies

Loans (especially foreign ones) should not be treated in this manner; they are a load for future generations. The repayment of external and internal debt in this budget (8.2) trillion dinars and the total debt is about (12) trillion dinars, that the benefit of the budget for the next year does not exceed (4) trillion dinars. If this situation persists, debt will become a burden on future budgets rather than adding them.

It is surprising in Article (24) "to authorize the Minister of Finance at the request of the Minister of Oil and with the approval of the Chairman (Council) of Ministers to issue treasury bonds totaling not more than (12) billion dollars" (more than 14 trillion dinars) without that huge figure part of State budget numbers that are supposed to be issued by law. This exceeds the legislative power and does not represent any kind of transparency before the people.

Seventh: Article 21 is completely confused. The government should consolidate its strategy towards the world-known sales tax (or tax) known as V.A.T., which is applied in most countries, including the majority of Arab countries. The imposition of this tax may not be granted by the annual budget law, but rather by a stable law with clear accounting grounds and estimated amounts that are then included in the annual budgets, and certainly not the discretionary powers of the Council of Ministers.

Eighth: Public Sector:

For four decades, the Iraqi state has been trying to find suitable solutions to move from a centrally managed "socialist" economy to a market economy. In 1986 all public sector companies in agriculture were liquidated by selling them. We see a creeping return of the public sector to agriculture, not vice versa. In the industrial, commercial, construction and services sectors, there were shy steps such as the so-called mixed sector.

The interim government has commissioned a privatization committee and nothing has been done. The 2012 advisors have conducted a lengthy study approved by the Council of Ministers. Commissions have been assigned to the market economy with complex structures and successive stages to find solutions that would go beyond decades if implemented but not implemented. The current government has repeated studies and commissioning committees to move to a market economy, tackle public sector companies, and support the private sector.

The situation is declining, and the public sector is stifling banks by controlling more than 80% of domestic banking and 90% of foreign transfers. The companies of the Ministry of Industry are trying to crawl and strangle the private sector. The annual budgets are used to help bulge public companies into the private sector by obliging state agencies to deal with public sector companies with exceptional advantages that allow them to ramp up and corrupt, as in the 2013-2014 school building allocations when implementation was passed on to public sector companies and funds were stolen from Before the "partner" executed by the private sector and did not implement any school.

-3-

The trend of Article (25) by giving 10% of the "products of the ministries" to the private sector is either to be given to all companies registered in Iraq (with local content subject to scrutiny) or to be protected by a customs system that protects local production or Both.

Ninth: Security and defense

First: Structure:

The link between the popular crowd, the Peshmerga, the counterterrorism apparatus, and the Defense Ministry division should be linked to the Council of Ministers. It is also advisable to append the national security apparatus to the Ministry of the Interior to avoid overlap of powers and the multiplicity of references. There is no harm in maintaining the connection of the intelligence apparatus to the Council of Ministers according to its constitutional specialization, which requires that the intelligence services be "under civilian control - and subject to the control of the legislative authority."

Second: Customizations:

(23.2) trillion dinars in the budget of 2018. Although Iraq is emerging from a war that may be unique and unique, the year 2018 must be a transitional year to civilian rule, and the gradual elimination of militarization of society. The allocation of 21.1% of the budget for these devices, compared to 3.9% for education and 1.8% for health reflects a serious imbalance in the priorities of the state for the future.

Tenth:

It is surprising to remove paragraph (2) of Article (11) of the preliminary draft, in which the acquired right to elective and ministerial posts to return to their previous posts should be returned to the budget law by the following text:

"Ministries and entities not affiliated with the Ministry are committed to the re-appointment of members of the House of Representatives, local councils and the Council of Ministers who left their jobs as a result of their election or abstention and vacant grades due to the movement of owners during 2018.

* Member of the parliamentary energy committee, head of the Iraqi Research and Studies Center

*

https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=9997