“The government has not responded”: A new parliamentary move to halt customs duties
“The government has not responded”: A new parliamentary move to halt customs duties
2026-02-22 03:15
Shafaq News – Baghdad
On Sunday, MP Ibtisam Al-Hilali, from the State of Law bloc, confirmed that there is a movement within the House of Representatives to collect signatures with the aim of adding a clause to the agenda of the next session to discuss increasing customs duties on importers.
Al-Hilali told Shafaq News Agency that the decisions of the “outgoing government” directly affected citizens, especially during the month of Ramadan, noting a rise in the prices of food and consumer goods, in addition to electrical appliances and other goods and merchandise.
She added that the House of Representatives “must assume its true legislative and oversight role as the representative of the people,” to monitor the decisions issued by the outgoing government and their direct impact on importers and citizens.
She explained that the Speaker of Parliament sent a letter on February 8 to the Prime Minister’s office to suspend the new customs tariff for 90 days, but “there is no response, suspension, or government pause to reconsider the new customs tariff.”
The Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Hebat al-Halbousi, had sent an official letter to the government requesting that the implementation of Cabinet Resolution No. (957) of 2025 be suspended for 90 days in order to reconsider the customs tariff, in addition to adopting a rate of 5% for some of the materials covered by the resolution.
He also requested a reduction in customs duties on “hybrid” cars from 15% to 5%, in support of the environment and to rationalize fuel consumption.
The Iraqi government raised customs duties by percentages ranging between 5% and 30%, distributed across brackets starting from 5%, 10% and 15%, up to the maximum limit of 30%.
These percentages cover the entire customs tariff register consisting of 99 chapters containing approximately 16,400 customs items, which are the items adopted globally in trade.
shafaq.com
