Iraq taxes: waste, corruption and calls to reveal the disappearance of huge sums
Iraq taxes: waste, corruption and calls to reveal the disappearance of huge sums
10-8-2022
Iraq lacks accurate official accounts that show the volume of financial revenues from taxes, as there are no official statistics that show the real numbers of the volume of fixed and variable revenues obtained from tax collection outlets. Managers from their jobs, against the background of the disappearance of large sums of money from financial revenue.
An official document, issued by the Ministry of Finance on September 15, showed the results of the investigation committee, which revealed the authority’s lack of control over the financial sums, as well as the existence of administrative violations according to which it recommended the dismissal of the authority’s director general from his position.
The researcher in Iraqi economic affairs, Nabil Jabbar Al-Ali, said that corruption in the tax sector has multiple doors, including those related to corruption in purchase and contracting contracts conducted by state institutions according to their operational and investment budgets, including those related to ongoing corruption such as decisions related to investment licenses and customs exceptions or Import exceptions.
Al-Ali added, in his speech to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that there are tax corruption operations related to the management of state funds, and how they are distributed in the form of profits for employees or useless and useless contracts, causing waste and compound corruption with public money at the expense of providing services.
He stressed the importance of focusing on enhancing integrity rather than focusing on combating corruption, which means drawing up policies and reforming systems through decisions and procedures that contribute to ending waste and corruption in public government spending. He explained that waste and corruption are among the most prominent features of successive governments in Iraq after 2003, and poor organization and ignorance, in addition to bad intentions, are at the top of the causes of waste, as well as the interests of the political system, which is one of the most important reasons for continuing corruption in a systematic and organized manner.
Al-Ali considered that taxes are a broad door for the flow of money into the state treasury and the redistribution of resources and income according to specific criteria to achieve social justice, in addition to other functions related to monetary policies and inflation control. He stressed that the figures announced in state budgets about the amounts collected from taxes are below the level of estimates, as the amount is usually estimated at approximately 3 trillion Iraqi dinars, but the real value may exceed 7 trillion dinars annually and maybe more.
The governments of the regions and governorates, according to the 2005 constitution, are concerned with collecting federal taxes under the supervision of the Federal Office of Financial Supervision, to reform oversight and management efficiency, and to reduce bureaucracy.
However, a member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Ahmed Al-Saffar, saw that the Iraqi tax system is old and inconsistent with the economic, administrative and social changes, and the country needs a comprehensive tax reform, and plans to address the great corruption that is rampant in the joints of this institution.
Speaking to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Al-Saffar indicated that Iraq is still working with Income Tax Law No. 113 of 1982, and this law is very old and needs a comprehensive change, stressing the importance of changing the form of management of the Tax Authority through cadres working according to modern and advanced techniques and systems. To eliminate corruption and suspicious agreements.
Al-Saffar revealed that the taxes that enter the state treasury do not exceed 10 percent of the collection operations, while the real percentage falls within the aspects of tax evasion and other pockets outside the state treasury, calling on the Integrity Commission and the supervisory authorities concerned with the investigation to uncover the corruption and waste operations that affected the work of the Commission. taxes over the past years.
Legal Zainab Al-Saadi said that the form of corruption in Iraq is not limited to taxes only, but there are multiple corruption systems that control the joints of the Iraqi state.
Al-Saadi indicated to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Integrity and Judiciary Commission are monitoring bodies that have contributed to promoting corruption, by exonerating many corrupt influential people, or imposing fines that do not reach the amount of money that was stolen. Al-Saadi clarified that Article 58 of Tax Law No. 113 of 1982 stipulates that a tax evader shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than three months and not more than two years.
For his part, the legal expert, Ali Al-Tamimi, stressed the need to remove political influence from judicial performance and to prevent those with influence from using political and financial influence to influence the court. Al-Tamimi told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Iraqi judiciary must take its role, and implement arrest warrants, investigations and travel bans against those responsible for wasting public money and those who hide behind corruption operations, and that no one should be excluded from deterrent legal penalties.
He added that the Iraqi state should form a specialized court that enjoys complete independence for the purposes of investigating and prosecuting administrative and financial corruption.
rawabetcenter.com
