Parliamentary Finance: Interest on bank loans is a “heavy burden” on the citizen, and we are working to reduce them

Parliamentary Finance: Interest on bank loans is a “heavy burden” on the citizen, and we are working to reduce them

2024-01-05 09:06

Parliamentary Finance - Interest on bank loans is a heavy burden on the citizen and we are working to reduce themShafaq News/ Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Mudar Al-Karawi, described on Thursday that the bank interest imposed by banks on their loans constitutes a heavy financial burden on borrowers, stressing that the Central Bank of Iraq and the banks will be hosted to reconsider them.

Al-Karawi told Shafaq News Agency, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee will hold a meeting at the beginning of the legislative term with the Central Bank of Iraq and the Rafidain and Al-Rashid banks to study the benefits of bank loans and the possibility of reconsidering the financial benefits and reducing the interest rate in a natural way that is compatible with the Iraqi social situation, especially for retirees.”

He added, “Loans granted to employees, retirees, and people with limited income must be reconsidered in terms of interest rates according to a mechanism adopted by the Central Bank.”

Al-Karawi considered that “the interest charged on loans constitutes a financial burden on thousands of families, especially those with limited income and retirees.”

Since government banks began launching advances and financial loans, borrowers began complaining about the high bank interest rate, and although the official interest rate on loans is 4% of the loan value, the problem is that the bank calculates this percentage multiplied by the number of years to repay the loan to reach the interest. This amounts to 50% of the loan value.

The burden of this interest varies from one loan to another, but it reaches its peak in housing loans, as some of them exceed 50% of the loan value, depending on the size of the amount and the years of repayment.

shafaq.com