After the first quarter of the current year has passed, the political and popular circles are still awaiting the approval of Iraq’s budget, the largest and most deficit-ridden in its history, amid fears of causing financial and economic problems that the government cannot address, especially after the sudden change in the total amount to reach 228 trillion dinars and a deficit exceeding 80 trillion.
With warnings about the large deficit and its damage to the Iraqi economy and fears of increasing taxes on citizens, the Parliamentary Finance Committee revealed today, Saturday, a change in the schedules of the current year’s budget.
The Iraqi Parliament voted on June 12, 2023, on the Federal Budget Law for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country in terms of budget size as well as the number of fiscal years, valued at 197 trillion and 828 billion dinars, with a financial deficit of 63 trillion dinars, approximately one-third of the budget.
Committee member Muayyin al-Kazimi said, “The requirements of ministries and unattached entities, operational and investment budgets, and increases in financial allocations for employee salaries, retirees, social protection networks, and ration cards have all led to changes in the budget law schedules and delays in sending them to parliament.”
He added that “the general budget for 2024 amounted to 228 trillion dinars after an increase in operational and investment expenses,” noting that the expected financial deficit is 80 trillion dinars, after the budget for 2023 was 199 trillion dinars.
He confirmed that “the Council of Ministers will vote on the budget schedules after the end of the visit of the Council President, Muhammad Shiya Al-Sudani, to Washington and his return to Baghdad, with the budget expected to reach parliament at the end of this month.”
On February 1st of last year, the Parliamentary Finance Committee revealed the latest developments in the financial budget for 2024, stating that it would increase to 206 trillion dinars instead of 199 trillion dinars, and at the end of March last year, the government took a surprising step by raising the size of the current year’s budget to 228 trillion dinars.
Financial expert Mustafa Akram Hantoush confirmed in a previous report to “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed” that “the financial deficit in the 2024 budget is large and dangerous, even frightening, and threatens the Iraqi economy real, and even has repercussions on the salaries of employees, especially since salaries are now delayed for several days beyond their usual payment dates.”
It is worth mentioning that the financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohammed Saleh, confirmed on March 30th last year that the budget schedules for 2024 focus on investment spending for new projects, indicating that the most important thing in these schedules is determining the levels of investment spending on the new projects, which is essential and fundamental spending in the movement of the national economy, as it is directly linked to development and growth in the economy by providing the objective conditions for the government’s demand for supplies and inputs for investment in the approved new projects.
Members of Parliament criticized the government for delaying the submission of the amended 2024 budget schedules for study and approval, despite the facilitations it enjoys as part of a “triple budget” for three years and only requiring some adjustments to expenditure and revenue line numbers, noting that violating legal deadlines regarding the budget and others has become “customary” in the country.
