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Iraq finance minister resists budget cuts

Wed Mar 4, 2009 8:28pm IST

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, March 4 (Reuters) - Iraq's finance minister on Wednesday rejected a bid by parliament to cut the 2009 budget because of slumping oil revenues, but lawmakers said they remained determined to slash spending by up to 10 percent.
Minister Bayan Jabor told a heated, four-hour meeting of parliament's finance committee that the $62 billion budget for this year should be passed as it is, despite being based on optimistically high oil prices.

The finance minister argued that parliament could cut back spending plans in June in a supplementary "negative budget" if oil prices, from which war-battered Iraq gets more than 95 percent of its revenues, remained depressed.

"We want to keep the budget as it is," Jabor told Reuters. "We insist on keeping the budget as it is because we have investment projects that should continue ... and the government has already cut the budget by around $7 billion."

Lawmakers, however, said they were not convinced and would push for a vote on Thursday on two similar proposals, either to cut 10 percent -- 7.4 trillion dinars ($6.2 billion) -- or to cut 6.8 trillion dinars ($5.8 billion) in spending.

The Iraqi government is in a bind. It is being starved of revenues just when it desperately needs money to rebuild after the years of bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion.
If the government fails to restore services, equip its armed forces and improve the lives of Iraq's 28 million people, there could be a resurgence in violence, some analysts warn.

Lawmakers say a lot of money is being squandered by government entities and the budget cuts can be implemented without affecting investment spending.