Abdul-Mahdi adviser reveals the developments of the 2020 budget and determines the conditions to overcome the "frightening deficit"

Abdul-Mahdi adviser reveals the developments of the 2020 budget and determines the conditions to overcome the "frightening deficit"



2019/08/27 07:03:10
 
The appearance of Mohammed Saleh, the economic adviser to the Prime Minister, on Tuesday, revealed the latest developments of the draft budget law in 2020.

Saleh, told Twilight News, "The requests of ministries are greater than the possibilities, and when recording these requests, shows us a large budget deficit, but not this dependence, the budget is built on the existing possibilities, and be acceptable deficit, such as this year and previous years," indicating that “Draft 2020 Budget Law is still under discussion at the Ministry of Finance”.

He explained that "oil constitutes 93% of the budget imports, if the current price of oil is calculated with the increase of expenditure, surely there will be a deficit different from the current year, but if the expenses remain the same, and oil maintained its price, there is no alarming deficit in the budget law ".

"I expect the deficit to remain the same and the price of oil will remain $ 56 a barrel," the prime minister's economic adviser said.

A member of the parliamentary Finance Committee Abdul Hadi Saadawi expected that the proportion of the budget deficit in 2020 to 72 trillion dinars, which will negatively affect the provision of services and supplies necessary for the provinces and ministries.

Saadawi attributed the increase of the deficit to "poor planning and spending a lot of money without reference to the budget, as well as the refusal of the Kurdistan region to deliver oil imports to Baghdad."

Al-Saadawi pointed out that "the deficit will increase the burdens on the government and may force it to borrow internal and external, which will be a burden on it in the coming years," usually the government's fiscal policy as "wrong because of the deliberate decisions of the Council of Ministers to spend a lot of money without reference to the draft budget In addition to the violation of the Minister of Finance to disburse funds to the Kurdistan region despite his failure to pay oil and border revenues to Baghdad, "he said.

It is noteworthy that Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said earlier, that his government paid the private part of the salaries of employees of the Kurdistan region only within the framework of the federal budget.

Abdul-Mahdi said that "the government pays salaries and dues to the Kurdistan region under the budget and do not pay the rest part because the budget law obliged to deduct the corresponding amounts represented by the value of 250 thousand barrels of oil per day, and if the region does not hand over this share will be deducted from the share of the region may equivalent."

He added, "We have not received any barrels of oil from the region until today and the government does not deliver the share of the region in full, but only receive salaries and this is the right of our people in Kurdistan because they are our children."

Abdul Mahdi pointed out that "there are political differences and it is not right to make them a source of threat to community peace."

The Iraqi authorities approved the beginning of this year budget for 2019, including the re-exchange of the share of the Kurdistan region, which did not receive in 2018 because of the referendum on its independence in 2017, and was estimated between 12.7 and 17 percent of them.

The government in Baghdad has pledged to pay the salaries of all employees of the Kurdistan region in 2019, including peshmerga fighters, which has been a subject of dispute for years between Baghdad and Erbil.

Baghdad announced for the first time to pay these salaries in the event of whether or not the region to export its quota of 250 thousand barrels per day, through the company "Sumer" (an institution of the Ministry of Oil in the central government, responsible for exporting the country's oil).

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