The House of Representatives discusses the monetary policy and amend the bill of the budget of 2019

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[ltr] November 12, 2018 November 13, 2018  [/ltr]
[ltr]The House of Representatives discussed the monetary policy in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank and the amendment of the federal budget in 2019 with the participation of the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. .


At the beginning of the session, Mr. Jassem Mohan Al-Bakhati was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives after the vote on adding this paragraph to the agenda.


The President Halabousi discussed the topics of improving the ration card items and the decisions of the previous government during the period of the conduct of business and related to Najaf airport during the next session.


The Council voted on the formation of a fact-finding committee on the security events in Ninewa province, which includes deputies of the province and those who wish to ladies and gentlemen MPs.


The Board discussed the presence of Mr. Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank and members of the Board of Directors and Mr. Faisal Al-Hims, Director of the Iraqi Bank for Trade, Monetary Policy.


At the beginning of the hospitality, the President welcomed the attendees to discuss the financial and monetary situation and the work of the Central Bank, praising the success of the Central Bank in addressing the economic challenges and facing the financial crisis, pointing out the existence of problems in need of quick fixes.


In his speech during the meeting, Mr. Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank, stressed that the Bank was able to urge the pace and efforts to confront financial crises with the least possible damage and better than expectations. He pointed out that the Central Bank is generally launched through a strategy developed from 2016 to 2020, And programs and initiatives in the first strategy full of visions and objectives to address the vacuum and backwardness of the tremendous developments experienced by the bank and the banking sector for periods of time.


He explained that the approved plan was real and measured by careful follow-up by a specialized department in the Central Bank to follow up all the developments that took place and included the introduction of jobs and tasks that developed within the body of the Central Bank after the introduction of several departments in it, noting the launch of a lending initiative of 6 trillion dinars for the industrial and agricultural sector And the real estate and property, where it amounted to about 2 trillion and 500 billion dinars for the last two sectors as well as to achieve financial stability in light of the current challenges, which was reflected in the provision of salaries to employees and corporate dues during the past years, noting that inflation did not exceed 2% The recent period, Iraq has become part of the international standards followed in this regard.


As for the building of the Central Bank of Iraq, Mr. Al-Alak said that the project started before assuming office, specifically in 2010 through the contract with the Office of Architecture Zaha Hadid directly, the new building enjoys special specifications and advanced electronically.


In turn, Mr. Walid Idi Abdul Nabi, Advisor to the Central Bank, pointed out that the bank studied the tenders submitted by 4 foreign companies and after a series of meetings by the consultants in the bank was referred to an Azerbaijani company, pointing out that the Economic Affairs Committee decided to exempt the Central Bank building from the contract instructions And recommending to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers for the purpose of presenting a vote on it in the Council of Ministers being outside the competence of the Economic Committee, indicating that the estimated cost of the project amounted to about 823 million dollars, while the negotiated cost was reduced to 772 million dollars, The executing company has a long history in executing projects in a number of countries in the world.


Mr. al-Alak said in response to a question concerning the causes of corruption of 12 billion dinars, that the damage was before taking office when the coffers of Rafidain Bank was sinking due to heavy rains in 2012 and caused damage to the banknotes after the arrival of water to the stores, explaining that the Central Bank is replacing currencies When exposed to any damage was also imposed a fine on the management of the Rafidain Bank has been reduced after considering what has been spent and the amount, especially since these securities outside the age of time, noting that the Central Bank lost the cost of printing banknotes, which represent nothing much, Was up to 7 billion T dinars worth less as much about the grief of an international certificate of cash management.


He pointed out that the reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq is different from the government reserves, indicating that the government reserves result from the surplus achieved by the Ministry of Finance, which happened in the years before 2012, where the reserve reached in 2012 to about $ 20 billion decreased after the deficit to small amounts.


The governor of the Central Bank said that the bank's reserves are higher than in the past, reaching in 2014 about 66 billion dollars, while the reserve currently about 61 billion dollars, as well as the existence of 15 billion dollars of debt to the Central Bank of the government to finance the budget deficit, Has bought Treasury remittances and financial bonds from the market, especially that oil revenues did not exceed the net about $ 2.5 billion per month while salaries 4 billion per month, which could lead to the collapse of the economic situation, which imposed the intervention of the Central Bank, noting that the adequacy of the reserve in Iraq in accordance with international standards Currently 1 69% is expected to arrive after two months to about 180% and the volume of the Iraqi currency traded in the market amounted to 43 trillion dinars.


The interventions and inquiries of the ladies and gentlemen during the discussion focused on the importance of good management of financial reserves and clarification of how to act in foreign currency from the oil resource and the amount of remittances abroad and the expected savings from foreign currency at the end of the year in addition to knowing the disbursement of $ 21 billion of the financial reserve, which was $ 81 billion And to go to 60 billion dollars later as well as the reasons for resorting to the purchase of commercial papers with the feasibility statement of opening foreign banks without providing any economic benefits.


In his response, the Governor of the Central Bank said that the relationship between deficit and monetary policy will be present in the debate of the House of Representatives regarding the budget, calling for the participation of the Central Bank in the meetings of the House of Representatives on the federal budget.


Then the Presidency of the Council decided to postpone the completion of the discussion of the subject of the Central Bank until after the hosting of the State Budget Committee.
The Council hosted the Governmental Committee for the Draft Federal Budget Law of the Republic of Iraq for the fiscal year 2019, headed by Fuad Hussein, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and his accompanying delegation.


The First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Hassan Karim Al-Kaabi, welcomed during his presidency part of the meeting with the government delegation to discuss the budget.


In his speech during the hospitality, the Minister of Finance stressed that the budget was prepared by the previous government in accordance with different visions of the views of the current government on construction and investment, noting the importance of time by the government and the House of Representatives to resolve the budget, adding that the government is about to introduce a new philosophy of the economic situation Private sector and investment.


The Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister for Financial and Economic Affairs, said that the committee is prepared to deal positively with the proposals of the ladies and gentlemen for the purpose of maturing the budget. He expressed his readiness to cooperate with the House of Representatives and the Finance Committee in the Council through holding joint meetings to gather ideas in order to benefit from them. And discussed the possibility of amending the budget, noting the existence of a proposal to assign a staff member the task of coordinating between the ministry and the House of Representatives.


The Minister of Finance, Fuad Hussein, pointed out that the draft budget is still a project that requires constant discussion by the ministers, which requires its completion within two weeks. He pointed out that the government is prepared not to change the budget within the available means and in harmony with the vision of the House of Representatives.


For his part, Mr. Maher Hammad, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance to the adoption of the price of oil $ 56 and exports of 3 million and 880 thousand barrels, as well as the presence of 7 trillion dinars current expenditures increased from last year in addition to increasing investment expenditures and allocate 4 trillion dinars in the area of ​​support in various areas such as ration card Farmers and an increase in regional development allocations and petrodollar projects


The interventions of Ladies and Gentlemen focused on the affirmation that the budget prepared the mind of the previous government and adopted on the austerity and demands of the Council represents the needs of the Iraqi street, asking about the objectives of the budget prepared and mechanisms to adopt the price of a barrel of oil $ 56 despite the increase in oil prices and rebuilding the budget again Consistent with the vision of construction.


The interventions included knowledge of the reasons for recalculation of the province of Kurdistan, approximately 12%, while the existence of estimates from the Ministry of Planning indicate that the proportion of the region up to about 14%, noting that the budget of 2019 does not build the economy of the country and different from the curriculum of the government put forward by Mr. Prime Minister, demanding By allowing the private sector to manage the state and manage the economy.


The interventions dealt with the reasons for not allocating a logical budget to the affected governorates and not taking into account the suffering of the people of those provinces with the need to treat Halabja governorate as an independent province, encouraging investment and private sector, providing loans and developing non-oil revenues, and increasing regional development projects as the best solution to eliminate unemployment, Of the value of barrels of oil to support the ration card, and the quest to install all contracts and wages daily, especially in the Ministry of Electricity and work to grant the Kurdistan region share according to the benefits and pay the dues of farmers.


The interventions focused on the need to provide the final accounts and allocation of funds for the development of agriculture and industry and the concern to provide a budget for vocational education and seek to conduct a census to know the population census of all provinces and the province of Kirkuk, the entitlement of the petro dollars as well as the allocation of funds for the Ramadi water project in addition to increasing the allocations of Nineveh province for the reconstruction of destroyed areas With the importance of increasing the allocations allocated to the province of Baghdad for development.


For its part, the government committee pointed out its intention to collect all interventions of ladies and gentlemen MPs for the purpose of discussing with the Minister of Finance with a view to the preparation of the budget bill.


He read the Halabousi book a letter directed by the Council of Ministers to the House of Representatives included the formation of a government committee to discuss the budget law with the House of Representatives and its committees and include the proposals of Ladies and Gentlemen MPs to amend the draft federal budget law, explaining that the House of Representatives will wait for what will result from the meeting of the State Committee with the Finance Committee of Amendments to the draft budget law without ignoring the possibility of another amendment after the second reading.


The Chairman of the House of Representatives members of the Finance Committee to hold a joint meeting with the government committee and officials in the Ministry of Finance and follow-up from the presidency of the Council on Sunday and the next Monday to discuss on current and investment expenditures and borrowing and the price of oil barrels and carriers and the development of regions in line with the government program in terms of the federal budget.


On the other, the Chairman of the Council of Tajil decided to complete the discussion of monetary policy, thanking Mr. Ali Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank for his presence in the Council to provide the Council with the priorities and statements of the monetary policy of the bank and the questions presented to him and to be presented at the next session.




It was then decided to adjourn the meeting until next Tuesday 20/11/2018
Department of Information
Parliament
12/11/2018


http://ar.parliament.iq/2018/11/12/مجلس-النواب-يناقش-السياسة-النقدية-وتع/
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