Iraq’s food security law, is a new way to solve the country’s budget, or a law that will save the country from crisis?
On Wednesday, the Iraqi parliament, by participation of 273 representatives, approved the proposed food security bill or (urgent support law for food security and development), although 2022 budget law has not ratified due to the political crisis. According to the draft law, the goal of the law is to achieve food security, to decreasing poverty ratio and to achieve financial stability under the light of the world’s rapid developments.
Here we have a question, did this law really come to parallel government affairs, help farmers, guarantee purchase of bread between rising prices, or oppositely it is a law to increase costs and open the door toward corruption? The total value of the law is 25 trillion dinars (about 17 billion dollars), of which 4 trillion dinars (about two billion and 746 million dollars) is allocated for providing electricity. In addition, the law allocates 5.5 trillion dinars (3.2 billion dollars) to buy local and imported wheat products.
Law experts describe this law as follows: The fact that this country has been without budget for a year means that all projects have stopped and the economy of this country will be reduced. They insist that they have proposed the law to protect the country without having a budget project, as well as to keep the situation until a new government is formed. The project will be approved by the National Forces led by Muqtada al-Sadr, which include the Sadr Bloc, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Sovereign Alliance. The government’s delay in forming, which for more than six months after the Iraqi parliament’s election prevents possibility of approving public budget, particularly within political crisis and widening consensus gaps and trust between the Bloc and Iraqi political parties.
Finally, we can say that the food security law is the result of the current political crisis, a result of a power struggle between forces leading the country’s political arena, a conflict that has prevented the approval of laws that directly affect the citizen’s interests and needs of the country, including the federal budget law, which is not expected to be approved this year.
