Tohme: We reject the government’s approach to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and warn of its severe damage
Tohme: We reject the government’s approach to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and warn of its severe damage
Sunday August 8, 2021 | 01:43 PM
The head of the National Nahj bloc, Ammar Tohme, confirmed today, Sunday, his rejection of the government’s approach to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund, while warning of its severe damage to the country.
Tohme said in a statement, “We reject the government’s tendency to borrow four billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund, especially since the Minister of Finance announced that he did not expect to obtain the loan until the end of this year, and the set of data below shows the error and harm of this approach:-
1. The total revenues in excess of what is fixed for the selling price of Iraqi oil in the budget amounted to more than (7,7) billion dollars during the first six months of the current year, which is more than the amount of borrowing assumed by (3.7) billion dollars.
2. The association of such loans with harsh conditions shackles the Iraqi economy and restricts its programs to result in steps that are harmful to the general Iraqi citizens and subject the economic decision to a strange and incompatible approach with the Iraqi situation, such as raising the dollar exchange rate.
3. The serious approach to collecting non-oil federal revenues from its many sources (ports, mobile phone companies alone) will provide four times the amount that is supposed to be borrowed.
4. The pressure of unnecessary government expenditures, which are hidden in general and vague headings, weakening the control over their detection and monitoring.
5. Correcting the contracts of the Ministry of Electricity with investors who represent economic fronts for influential political parties will save several trillion dinars annually.
6. Taking courageous national decisions on the issue of oil licensing rounds, whose annual cost averages 15 trillion dinars, as well as the issue of contracts in the Kurdistan region with foreign and unfair companies against Iraq and its economy.
With the same justifications above, we reject what the Minister also announced that the government, in cooperation with the Central Bank of Iraq, will issue government bonds amounting to (1,5) trillion dinars, equivalent to approximately (1) billion dollars.
aynaliraqnews.com
