Iraqi parliament once more fails to pass budget
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi parliament failed yet again to hold a session to vote on the federal budget bill for 2021, after several delays.
Parliament was supposed to vote on the budget last week, but it postponed it to Saturday and then to Sunday noon and then the evening before ultimately failing to hold it at all.
The session was preceded by intensive meetings between the Finance Committee and heads of parliamentary blocs to settle several disputes over the draft federal budget.
The deputy of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Ikhlas al-Dlemi, told Kurdistan 24 that the heads of the parliamentary blocs agreed, after intensive meetings, that a session to vote on the budget would be held on Sunday evening.
There are disagreements that have not yet been resolved, including adjusting the dollar exchange rate and the volume of borrowing in addition to ministerial contracts, as well as the contracts for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
The Iraqi parliament has now failed several times to vote on the bill following continuing disagreements over some items, especially the autonomous Kurdistan Region’s share of the 2021 budget.
A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Ahmed al-Saffar, told Kurdistan 24 that the Finance Committee settled on Sunday evening on Article 11 regarding the Kurdistan Region’s allocation.
The repeated failure to hold a session comes at a time when Iraq is going through a worsening economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing financial consequences, including the collapse in oil prices.
Other parliamentary blocs refuse to vote on the budget if the exchange rate of the US dollar is not reversed, instead of the current 1 USD in exchange for 1,450 dinars.
As Iraq relies on oil sales revenues to finance about 95 percent of state expenditures, increasing the exchange rate was a decision made by the Iraqi Central Bank to tackle any deficit in Iraq’s general budget for 2021.
Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly
