Parliamentary Finance Committee warns against not adjusting the price of a barrel of oil in the budget
Parliamentary Finance Committee warns against not adjusting the price of a barrel of oil in the budget
2025-04-16 06:38
Shafaq News/ The Parliamentary Finance Committee warned on Wednesday against adjusting the price of a barrel of oil in the Iraqi federal general budget due to the decline in global oil prices.
Committee member Jamal Kocher told Shafaq News Agency, “The price of a barrel of oil was set in the general budget law at $70 per barrel. At the time, the price of a barrel of oil was more than $70. It is not yet known whether the government has adjusted the price of a barrel of oil in the budget or not.”
Kocher pointed out that “the Iraqi state’s operating budget is only 90 trillion dinars, and if the price of a barrel of oil falls below $60 and is not addressed, this will plunge the country into a financial crisis, and the government will spend oil revenues on employee salaries only.”
Regarding the fate of the budget tables, the MP explained that “the budget tables have been delayed in the Cabinet and a date for sending them to the House of Representatives has not yet been set.”
The Prime Minister’s financial and economic advisor, Mazhar Mohammed Salih, told Shafaq News Agency that the delay in submitting the 2025 budget schedules to the House of Representatives until now is due to “amendments related to the costs of extracting and transporting Kurdistan Region oil, which required restructuring the calculation methods.”
Saad al-Nubi, a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, told Shafaq News Agency on Tuesday that he was surprised by the government’s delay in sending the budget law tables to the House of Representatives. He explained that “the budget was supposed to reach Parliament before the end of last month,” noting that “the committee pressured the Minister of Planning and the Minister of Finance, asking them to explain the reason for the delay in sending it, but they have not received any response so far.”
shafaq.com
