Fihan : the government did not abide by the parliamentary resolutions to manage the consequences of the exchange-rate appreciation

On Friday, the head of Saadiqun Parliamentary Bloc, Adnan Fihan, demanded the Parliament’s Presidency to summon the Caretaker Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, for not following the budget terms and not managing the consequences of the exchange-rate appreciation.

Madar Alhaq agency received a statement from Fihan that stated :
The Speaker of the Parliament and his two deputies follow Sayed Muqtada al-Sadr’s orders to immediately summon the Finance Minister and the Central Bank Governor to manage the consequences and implications of the exchange-rate appreciation for the dollar, which still stands for more than a year now.

And as a reminder, for the reminders benefit the believers, the point is to manage the consequences and implications of the exchange-rate appreciation for the dollar and not to depreciate it as the public demands, for that we had put a plan to manage those consequences since the previous Parliamentary round, but the government did not oblige by it, and some of it states :

1. Section (50/b) of the General Budget Act of year 2021 (to allocate an additional 500 billion Dinars to increase and improve the items of the ration card), we also insisted on adding (no less than five essential items) but it was rejected for political reasons.
   Despite the substantial increase of the Iraqi Government imports from the rising oil prices, the government did not abide by improving the items of the ration card nor even supplying it.
2. In order to face the exchange-rate appreciation for the dollar, promoting agriculture, supporting the farmers and decreasing the high unemployment rate the parliament voted on its previous round on section (50/c) of the Budget Act which states on raising the prices of wheat, barley and rice crops (50) thousand dinars for the ton each.
   But what happened is that the government did not follow this section and the prices of the crops remained the same while the prices of the fertiliser and pesticides increased without the government interference nor support to the farmers.
3. Affirming on the government on the importance of securing the farmers funds and paying them after receiving the marketed crops, yet despite the financial depth the payment is delayed till this day without justifications as if it was deliberate to destroy the agriculture of Iraq, and due to this policy we witness increased rural-urban migration and unemployment.
4. Increasing the funding of the Social Protection Network by (25) for each member of the families included in the protection, the raise could’ve been more if some political acts did not interfere to decrease the budget of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs from (5) trillions to (3) trillions for political scores.

And so we demand the Speaker of the Parliament and his deputies to immediately summon the Prime Minister to investigate the reasons for not executing the sections of the General Budget Act of the year 2021, to alleviate the suffering of the citizens and to manage the rise of the unemployment rate.