“Tidbits From TNT” Saturday Morning 1-18-2025

TNT:

Tishwash:  Baghdad.. Notice of military measures in the Green Zone

The Iraqi military authorities announced today, Saturday, that the shooting range located within the approaches to the US embassy complex in the Green Zone, in the center of the capital, Baghdad, will be active during the hours scheduled for today.

The Security Media Cell stated in a statement received by Shafak News Agency, "The shooting range will operate from 07:00 am until 21:00 pm, today, Saturday, January 18, 2025."

The concerned authorities called on citizens to take note of this, stressing that the measure comes within the framework of the usual military activities in the region.  link

Tishwash:  The Central Bank of Iraq denies the intention to close cash delivery outlets

The Central Bank of Iraq called for caution in transmitting and circulating news about the closure of exchange outlets, and confirms that no decision, directive or statement has been issued regarding the closure of outlets or their conversion into exchange companies.

The Central Bank said in a press statement that its recently issued statement stipulates expanding the spread of cash delivery outlets through all available channels, including ATMs, POC cash payment devices, as well as authorized exchange companies, electronic payment company outlets, and POS electronic payment devices spread throughout Iraq.

 The bank stressed the need to transmit news from its official sources, which are published on its official website and its verified social media pages.

He stressed that the Central Bank's circulars issued to all parties in the Iraqi financial and banking sector included directing banks and non-banking financial institutions to expand their financial services in areas that lack the aforementioned services  link

************

Tishwash:  The three-year budget and its final year

Written by Dr. Bilal Al Khalifa

For the first time, Iraq has enacted a federal general budget for three years instead of one year, although most of the articles of the constitution and Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019 referred to the budget as annual, but the government made an exception and made it a three-year budget.

Most economists, including me, warned against legislating this budget, as well as changing the budget method from a materials budget to a programs budget, etc., but to no avail.

Knowing that the legislation of the Federal General Budget Law was on June 26, i.e. late, and that the instructions to facilitate the implementation of the budget were issued on August 7, 2023, i.e. at the end of the third quarter of the year, knowing that most of the components of Parliament are participating in the government, i.e. almost this session, Parliament is mostly with the government, and therefore there is no opposition to the government or Parliament, which means that it is easy to pass any decision or legislation, and among those legislations is the Federal General Budget Law.

The aim of approving a three-year federal general budget was to accomplish the government’s program by not delaying the approval of the federal general budget in other years, i.e. 2024 and 2025, but Federal General Budget Law No. (13 of 2023) stipulates that budget tables must be prepared and submitted to the House of Representatives.

In 2024, Iraq did not have a general budget because it did not approve the budget tables until after a great deal of debate. In the middle of the year, on 7/3/2024, when it was sent to the federal government, everyone was shocked by the government’s letter to parliament inquiring about the difference in the three tables, that is, the one that was sent, the one that was voted on, and the one that reached the government. This means that there is great manipulation, and the matter should have been investigated because the difference is tens of billions of dollars.

The result is that the year 2024 has ended and Iraq does not have general budget schedules, and therefore the ministries do not have investment budgets and do not know their financial ceilings.

The 2025 schedules were supposed to be approved at the end of 2024, i.e. before the start of the new year, and thus the government’s economic program would be implemented from day one.

The Ministry of Finance indicated that the most prominent challenges facing the ministry in implementing the 2024 budget and the deficit in it came as a result of the federal government paying more than 11 trillion in salaries to employees of the Kurdistan Region, as the region's non-oil revenues amounted to more than 4 trillion dinars, Erbil only sent 320 billion dinars to Baghdad, while the authorities in Kurdistan did not hand over the region's oil and non-oil revenues to the center, which negatively affected the financing of other governorates.

She also said that it is necessary to approve the federal general budget schedules for the year 2025 because there are a number of challenges in the context of not approving the budget, including stopping annual allowances for employees, stopping transfers between ministries and companies, and the necessity of not entering into new contracts and other matters.

But there are several notes in particular:

1- Last year there were no approved schedules and the matters mentioned have passed.

2 - The three general budget tables for last year were not referred to, and the negligent party was not held accountable.

3 - The Ministry was late in submitting the tables to Parliament, and thus it violated the Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019, Article (11), which states (The Council of Ministers shall discuss the draft federal general budget law, approve it, and submit it to the House of Representatives before mid-October of each year).

4 - At the same time, we notice that there are appointments, and this contradicts the above, because how can a new financial allocation be made and at the same time there is no financial allocation for an old employee?

5 - The statement also reveals the failure of the main goal of approving a three-year budget.

6 - The major challenge in providing cash liquidity and not financial allocation for employees and retirees has not been clarified.

7 - The amount of currency sales has not been clarified after the dollar selling window was closed and a large amount of dollars continued to be sold.

8 - The budget represents the government’s economic plan, and any failure in it will be reflected in the government’s performance and policy.

9 - The official sponsor of the government is the State Administration Coalition, which includes almost everyone, and it is also concerned with the failure to legislate or approve the budget schedules.

The statement of the Ministry of Finance is very correct from a technical and administrative standpoint, and pressure must be put on politicians to approve the budget, and this statement is one of the methods of pressure. link

Mot: .. Tah Dah!! --- the Latest!! -- a Pet Psychic!!! 

Mot: An anniversary miracle…