Prime Minister's Advisor: Government Program Seeks To Raise Non-Oil Revenues To 20%
Advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed today, Saturday, that non-oil revenues have witnessed a significant change in their contribution to budget resources, while he indicated that the government program seeks to raise them to 20%.
Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "There are two tracks in the increase in non-oil revenues, which witnessed a significant change in their contribution to the federal general budget resources, as indicated by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani," indicating that "the first track is the increase in the growth rate of non-oil GDP to touch 6% annually,
which is a leap in the development of productive activities for non-oil economic sectors, headed by the transportation sector, digital communications technology, housing, construction, infrastructure, agriculture and the clear industrial transformation."
He added that "the other track is the development in the general budget resources other than oil resources as a result of the high discipline in tax and customs collection after introducing digital operations, automation and expanding the contact with neglected tax vessels," noting that "the progress achieved is consistent with the government program to seek to raise the share of non-oil revenues over time and within the economic reform packages by making it 20% instead of less than 10%."
Saleh explained that “this issue is related to the growth of non-oil GDP on the one hand and maximizing budget resources financially from traditional revenue sources, whether direct and indirect taxes and various related government revenues, which creates an integrated relationship between financial sustainability and economic sustainability over time, which is a supreme goal of the government program.”
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had confirmed in a special interview on Al-Iraqiya News Channel, followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that “non-oil revenues reached 14 percent after they were 7 percent,” indicating that “unemployment decreased from 16.5 to 14.4, and the poverty rate decreased from 23 percent to 17 percent.”