Parliamentary Finance Committee on Budget Delay: The Government Underestimates Parliament’s Role
Parliamentary Finance Committee on Budget Delay: The Government Underestimates Parliament’s Role
2025-03-16 04:27
Shafaq News/ Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Hussein Mounes, confirmed on Sunday that the talk about sending the general budget tables from the Ministry of Finance to the Council of Ministers is still unconfirmed, and there is no accurate information available regarding the veracity of this news.
In a statement to Shafaq News Agency, Mounes indicated that the government violated the Financial Management Law by delaying the submission of the schedules, considering this a disregard for the role of the House of Representatives and its oversight and legislative work.
He explained that the Parliamentary Finance Committee has not yet been informed of any official date for the schedules to be submitted to Parliament, stressing the need for the government to adhere to legal and constitutional procedures when submitting the budget.
The Ministry of Finance was supposed to submit the budget tables to the Cabinet in October 2024, in preparation for approval before the start of the new year, in accordance with the Financial Management Law.
Earlier, Ibtisam al-Hilali, a member of parliament representing the Coordination Framework, predicted that the current year’s budget would be submitted to parliament before the end of March. She indicated that the total budget and deficit were similar to previous budgets.
In November 2024, the head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Atwan al-Atwani, indicated that the government had begun meetings to prepare the 2025 budget, which was expected to reach Parliament early this year.
He also pointed out that the oil disputes with the Kurdistan Region are among the most significant challenges facing the budget preparation process, despite efforts to resolve these disputes and resume the region’s oil exports to boost the country’s resources.
Last February, the Iraqi Parliament voted to amend Article 12 of the budget law, which concerns the costs of extracting oil from the Kurdistan Region.
It is noteworthy that the Council voted in June 2023 on the draft general budget law for the fiscal years (2023, 2024, 2025).
shafaq.com
