Ibtisam Al-Hilali, the Karbala Governorate representative, refused to vote on the schedules of the budget law for the year 2024 on Monday unless the financial allocations to the governorates and the method by which they are distributed are made clear.
Al-Hilali told , “The Chamber of Priests casted a ballot in its phenomenal meeting on the timetables of the spending plan regulation for the year 2024, and they have not yet arrived at the Place of Delegates, and they are supposed to show up tomorrow, Tuesday.”
She went on to say, “The financial allocation to the governorates in the budget law for the year 2023 was not at the required level, particularly Karbala, which needs approximately one trillion dinars for infrastructure and the development of roads and transportation due to its importance between the governorates and its geographical location, especially during the days of Ashura and the Arbaeen pilgrimage.”
Al-Hilali went on to say, “If they are not clear in distributing financial allocations to the governorates and giving Karbala Governorate importance, we will not vote on the budget tables in the House of Representatives.”
Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani announced yesterday, Sunday, that the budget for 2024 will be 211 trillion dinars and that employee salaries will be 62 trillion dinars for the year 2024. In contrast, the budget for 2023 will be 199 trillion dinars and employee salaries will be 59 trillion dinars.
Al-Sudani estimates that the budget for 2024 will have revenues of “144 trillion and 336 billion dinars, expenditures of 210 trillion and 936 billion dinars, and deficit of 63 trillion and 599 billion dinars.”
“The governorates’ allocations to local government programs with an investment allocation amounted to 10.633 trillion dinars in 2023, and we financed 3.333 trillion dinars, based on fundamental requests from the governorates,” Al-Sudani stated. “The remainder of the allocation is 7.333 trillion dinars in a trust account, at the disposal of the governorate governments.”
