Iraqi Parliament to discuss first 3-year budget
Packs of Iraqi dinars. Photo: Al-Ain News
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Parliament is preparing to discuss the country’s draft financial budget, which unprecedentedly covers three consecutive years.
The discussion will take place while controversy over the budget items and the spending allocations escalates.
During its session on March 13, the Iraqi government approved the draft federal budget law for the fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025, and referred it to the parliament.
According to the draft sent to parliament, the new budget is 197.8 trillion dinars (152 billion USD), including investments worth 47.5 trillion dinars (36.5 billion USD).
The proposed deficit in the new budget is 63.7 trillion dinars (around 48 billion USD).
The budget allocated about 307 million USD for the autonomous Kurdistan region in order to pay the salaries of its employees, in exchange for 400 thousand barrels of oil per day produced in the region.
The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Salih, mentioned that the draft federal budget represents the government program that was approved by the parliament last October.
Salih added that the budget aims to achieve two major goals. The first is related to increasing social spending and addressing the poverty problems, and the second is to increase investment allocations.