"The Toughest Budget in Iraq's history" : 560 hours and 25trillion deficit cut

Shafaq News/ The Parliamentary Finance Committee said it needed 560 working hours to amend the law and cut the fiscal deficit to 25trillion dinars.

Committee reporter Ahmad al-Saffar told Shafaq News Agency, "the Parliamentary Financial Committee worked throughout the previous period with exceptional effort and took 560 hours of work (23 days and approximately three hours) to amend the 2021 general budget bill, given it included large sums that do not commensurate with the financial, economic and health crisis in the country," noting, "the committee hosted 320 officials in charge of the expenditures in the budget law."

 He added, "the expenditures in the general budget of 2019 were 116trillions, while in the 2021 budget it was 164trillion dinars," indicating, "the Parliamentary Finance Committee successfully reduced the big difference in the budget to 127trillion, and it will introduce further cuts. We also cut the budget of the three presidencies to 20%." 

 Al-Saffar continued, "the financial revenues in the budget rose from 93 to 103trillion dinars by raising the price of a barrel of oil to $45, while reducing the fiscal deficit to less than 25trillion after it was 71 trillion dinars," stressing, "the 2021 budget is the toughest in Iraq's history taking into consideration the near elections and the political interference."