Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

http://www.portaliraq.com/news/USAID+works+to+advance+intellectual+property+right s+law__1112301.html?PHPSESSID=140481d186c03c6f3ae5 ad9567c3e5b9

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Keep the faith!

With the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Izdihar project, the Intellectual Property Committee of the Government of Iraq completed an integrated draft of the intellectual property law which aims to be fully compliant with the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Currently under final review, the draft will soon be discussed by the Council of Ministers and then submitted to the Parliament.

Originally Posted by One Oar

Quote:

.The Iraqi government had given each individual the amount (10) of thousands of dinars and the ration card donated by the occasion.


Hard to tell if that means in the past or not. To date, we do not have any other confirmation do we?

Seems if they had distributed the ration card and the check we wouldn't have to scour so hard and try to read between the lines.

But then again, scouring and reading between the lines is our life, LOL.

Very GOOD point! Still hope that they will r/v before distributing them.

Cheers!
DayDream

The investment law at a glance
the iraqi investment law at a glance
22/10/2006
Source: Niqash


The Iraqi investment law approved by the Iraqi parliament in its session on 10 October 2006 will come into effect after its approval by the president and its publication in the Iraqi Official Gazette. It will regulate the national and foreign investment process in Iraq.

Judge Dr. Wa'il Abd Al-Latif, legal expert, MP and deputy head of the Legal Committee, outlines for Niqash the most important points in the law.

Privileges and Guarantees Offered to Investors:

1. Taking out the capital brought into Iraq with its revenues in hard currency
2. Dealing with the Iraqi securities market
3. Leasing land needed for the project or using it on condition that the term does not exceed a period of 50 years that can be renewed
4. Insuring the investment project at any national or foreign insurance company
5. Opening accounts in Iraqi or foreign currency or both at Iraqi banks or at banks outside Iraq
6. Obtaining residency and facilitating investors’ entry to Iraq and leaving Iraq
7. Non-confiscation or nationalization of the investment project
8. Non-Iraqi workers have the right to transfer their salaries and indemnities outside Iraq
9. Exemption from fees and taxes for ten years beginning with the date of starting the project. This period is renewable. Also, furniture and assets needed for expanding and modernizing the project are exempt.

Investors’ Commitments:

1. Informing the commission of the date of starting work on the project
2. Maintaining accurate book-keeping checked by an authorized lawyer
3. Presenting economic and technical feasibility studies with all the maps related to the project
4. Keeping a record of imported materials, protecting the environment, and commitment to qualitative control systems
5. Complying with Iraqi laws and the action plan methodology presented by investors

Areas of investment

The law opened all areas of investment before Iraqi and foreign investors except:
1. Investment in the field of extracting and producing oil and gas
2. Investment in the sectors of banks and insurance companies
3. Land cannot be owned except for housing projects. It can be owned by Iraqis as separate units; otherwise, it is given for a period of fifty years, which is renewable.

Investment Commissions in Iraq

The law stipulates the formation of two commissions in Iraq:

1. The National Commission for Investment: It is a legal entity managed by a board comprised of nine members who have had a minimum of ten years of experience and specialization and who hold university degrees. The commission will be responsible for the formulation of the national policy for investment, the development of plans and controls, and monitors the application of controls. It exclusively specializes in federal investment projects. The government nominates its head on the level of a minister and a deputy head on the level of an undersecretary. Both will be approved by the parliament for a period of five years. The board also has four members on the level of general managers and three representatives from the private sector chosen by the prime minister.

2. Commissions in regions and governorates. Since the federal structure in Iraq has been approved through the law on the formation of regions, which then will enjoy legislative, executive, and judicial powers, the investment law has provided for the establishment of commissions in federal regions. Governorates which are not organized as regions enjoy financial and administrative powers, and thus the law has regulated the right of formation of investment commissions in governorates as well.

The commissions in regions and governorates have powers to grant investment licenses, encourage investment, and open branches in areas under their jurisdiction in consultation with the national commission and in accordance with this law.

Each of those commissions is comprised of seven members who have a minimum of seven years of experience and specialization. The regions’ commissions are coupled to the prime ministers of the regions, and the governorate commissions are linked to the governors and monitored by the respective governorate council. The law authorizes regions and governorates to form these commissions, which draw up investment plans in such a way that does not contradict the federal investment plans.

The law allows governorates and regions to exercise their role in encouraging investment as the national commission will be limited to the role of federal investments only and thus not take over the role for investment in the regions and governorates.

The national commission has a special budget. It has to deal with license applications within 45 days. It also has to facilitate granting licenses and use electronic correspondence.

Evaluation

The new investment law will surely make a big qualitative change in the Iraqi economy by means of incoming capital and foreign experience, which will contribute to establishing the basic infrastructure of the Iraqi economy. Iraq suffers from lack of capital available for reconstruction and development due to the accumulation of loans as well as lack of experience due to ongoing wars. This law will immensely help in meeting this need.

The Iraqi federal budget is derived to 93-95% from the proceeds of crude oil. These proceeds are spent on the subsidies for the ration cards, low fuel prices, the social welfare system, as well as the salaries and wages of workers in the Iraqi state. The remainder is not enough to realistically rebuild in Iraq an infrastructure that needs hundreds of billions, which are not readily available according to the reality of the Iraqi state that owes more than 130 billion dollars to the rest of the world, and on the other hand we cannot boost the state through the small projects that cannot achieve sustainable development. And thus, like many countries in the world, it must resort to investment.

The Iraqi economic infrastructure has been destroyed over more than 25 years since the beginning of the Iraq-Iran War in 1980. With the increase of its population Iraq may become an economic machine that will not stop for fifty years in the areas of services, housing, economy, agriculture, and commerce. This law will enable this progress by means of establishing a secure environment for investment.

That the investment law establishes the basic rules for the investor with guarantees and protection is a very good step in the field of investment, although the land problem remained unresolved or at least not in the way that we want it to be where the investor could own property except for the housing projects which are to be owned by Iraqis. In our opinion this is a tautology as every Iraqi has under the constitutional right to own property, reside and travel in any region of Iraq.

More than nine governorates, in addition to Iraqi Kurdistan, have a secure environment for investment. The growth and development of these governorates will create an incentive for governorates which lack security to seek to create a secure environment. Surely the economy, through investment, will contribute to achieving security in the country.

Has anyone seen anything at all on the Hydrocarbon Law at all. I have not seen any actual news about this in over a week? Did I miss something?

Though this is titled for Kurdistan, there is good overall info










Kurdistan Regional Government Hydrocarbon Law: A Commentary
By Tariq Shafiq
20 September 2006 (Middle East Economic Survey)

1. Basic Survey

1.1 The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has published drafts of two Hydrocarbon Laws: one for the Kurdistan Region and the other for the Iraq Federal (Central) government. The drafts have been circulated to officials from the US, UK, and Iraqi governments, as well as to the media. This move towards transparency is commendable. However, the publishing of the oil and gas production-sharing agreements (PSA) would certainly make the KRG a leader, in this respect, among Middle East governments, especially at a time when much has been rumored about the very generous profit split in favor of the companies.

1.2 The draft laws envisage a production-sharing basis for foreign investment, the terms of which are mostly consistent with standard PSA agreements elsewhere, which may be considered generous to the contractors in Iraq, as will be shown later. The KRG retains the option to accommodate other forms of contracts.

1.3 Tendering for licensing has been adopted, without abandoning the possibility of direct negotiations.

1.4 The initial exploration term is set at five years, extendable to a maximum of seven, with set amounts of exploration area relinquished with each extension.

1.5 Post-discovery development is set at 20 years, with an automatic five-year extension and the possibility of further extension on negotiated terms.

1.6 Minimum royalty levels are established at 7.5% for crude oil of up to 20° API rising, thereafter, in steps to 8.5 % for 30° API and to 10% for crude above 30° API. A minimum royalty rate of 5% is set for natural gas.

1.7 A variety of taxes are also outlined, including a windfall tax, but no figures are given.

1.8 Cost oil recovery is set at a maximum 70% for crude oil of 14° API, and a minimum of 55% for crude oil above 30° API. Production profit sharing on the remaining output is determined according to a formula (unpublished) which relates cumulative revenues to cumulative petroleum costs; one assumes the use of what is known as R factors to calculate the profit oil split between the contractor and government.

1.9 The draft law specifies that contractors are obliged to provide sufficient volumes of crude oil to meet local consumption needs and priority should be given to local partners, and training and technology transfer in a package generally known as “local content.” However, no percentage is specified.

1.10 Standard dispute procedures by the Kurdistan Ministry are adopted allowing international arbitration as a last resort. However, this is applied to all disputes relating to oil and gas operations, including disputes requiring unitization for oil and gas fields over Kurdistan’s borders, and also fields straddling foreign state borders, which ordinarily come under the prerogative of the Federal or Central sovereign state.

1.11 With regards to the legal framework, to quote a consulting firm, PFC Energy’s Advisors, which describes the legal foundation of the KRG’s petroleum law: “It is worded in dispassionate legal language, the proposed laws are politically incendiary, reflecting an effort by the Kurds to impose their own maximalist federal (or in this case confederal) interpretation of the new constitution on the country’s hydrocarbon sector. In that sense, the draft laws are Kurdish nationalism dressed up as national petroleum legislation, designed to alter the balance of authority in favor of the regions, and leaving the KRG as a quasi-independent state.”

1.12 Licensing, for example, requires the approval of the KRG parliament only. “Taken in tandem, the draft laws often read more like treaties between sovereign governments. The Kurdish Region law asserts that full sovereign title and management authority over petroleum resources within KRG boundaries rest locally.” This covers the areas which the KRG describes as ‘disputed territories.’ It includes: Kirkuk, parts of Mosul, Sallahdin and Diyala. “It proposes the establishment of regional institutions (including a local operating company and an oil sales arm) to manage the sector, and states categorically that negotiating deals and licensing third-party in Kurdistan operations region is the exclusive purview of the KRG.”

1.13 While the KRG law accepts that Article 112 of the constitution limits its unilateral control over production from current fields, the draft explicitly refutes the notion that these field operations will be managed independently by the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad or a future INOC. Joint management is allowed only on basis of prior agreement between the KRG and the central government, with the former granting the license to participate in upstream operations.

1.14 Otherwise, this agreement limits the relationship between the KRG and the central government concerning the management of petroleum affairs to one of cooperation between the existing and the newly formed Kurdish organizations, with a suggested National Petroleum Committee to determine among the producing regions and governorates the allocation of quotas established for Iraq by OPEC, and with a National Revenue Commission, deriving the cause of its founding from the Iraqi constitution, to verify the distribution of national revenues among the governorates and the regions. Decisions taken by the Commission are based on unanimity, thus allowing veto power to the regions and governorates.

1.15 The KRG, also limits further the role of the Central government to that of an administrative one confined to the handling, ie exporting and marketing, of the “extracted” oil and gas from “existing producing fields,” in accordance to the KRG interpretation of Article 112.

1.16 Current Fields are defined as the oilfields that have been producing more than 20,000 b/d over the previous year up to the last voted Constitution on 22 August, 2005. As a result, minor or aging fields, plus discovered but undeveloped fields amounting to around 60 oil or gas field out of a total of 80, will revert to KRG and other regions and governorates.

1.17 The KRG places all the present upstream and downstream facilitates and infrastructure under the management of its Ministry of Oil for its own use and others authorized by them and/or the central government.

2. Present Status

2.1 The government of the Kurdistan Democratic Party signed a PSA agreement with Norway’s DNO in 2004 to drill for oil near the border city of Zakho, where profit oil is said to be 40% to the contractor with a front loaded cost recovery. This was a pioneering agreement which signaled Kurdistan’s intent to develop its own oil resources.

2.2 The government of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, based in Sulaymaniya had, prior to this date in January 2003, signed an agreement with a Turkish oil company, PetOil and Petroleum Products International Exploration and Production Inc, near the city of Chamchamal, the site of several structural oil and gas domes such as Chiasorkh, Pulkhanah and Chemchamal. Again a PSA agreement was signed with the contractor’s profit oil set at 49%, and a front loaded cost oil recovery of 80% to 90%.

2.3 There are today some eight foreign oil companies carrying out studies in Kurdistan. In addition to DNO, oil companies exploring in Kurdistan include: Petoil and General Energy Corp, both Turkish; Woodside of Australia; and Canadian companies Western Oilsands Inc and Heritage Oil Corp which formed a joint venture with Eagle Group of Iraq, based in northern Iraq. All agreements are of PSA format.

2.4 Iraq is estimated to have in excess of 215bn barrels of potential reserves and 115bn barrels of proven reserves, totaling over 330bn barrels. Of this the Kurdistan region has been allocated 10% or 33bn barrels of crude oil which puts it almost on par with international oil regions such as the Caspian and North Sea.

2.5 An average oilfield discovery in Iraq houses a reserve of some 1-2bn barrels. None of the above oil companies has total reserves worldwide that measures any where near this figure. Most of them would hardly qualify for a PSA in any of the leading oil producing countries. However, clearly, these are speculative moves by companies which are prepared to take high legal and political risk for high reward, as will be shown in the economics evaluation below.

3. Economics Of The KRG’s PSA Agreements

3.1 With no published agreement clearly only highlights of the economic parameters can be estimated from the measure of the profit oil split to the government and the contractor and the maximum cost allowances.

3.2 Petrolog & Associates, of which I am the director, has worked out the economics of PSA agreements in Iraq for a variety of oilfields development. Capital investment costs in the range of $3,000 to $6,000 per unit production capacity (1 b/d, ie 365 barrels per year), an operating cost of $1.5 per extracted barrel for a range of revenues resulting from prices ranging $18, $35 at today’s price of $70/B, have been used to estimate economic yardsticks for oil field ranging from 1 to 10bn barrels in Iraq. An average Iraqi field would have a reserve of over 1bn barrels and nearly 2bn.

3.3 The results relevant to KRG PSA agreements are summarized below:
For an oilfield development of 1bn barrels on a PSA, such as that of KRG, having a cost allowance of 60% and a company profit split of 40-49%, the company’s Internal Rate of Return (IRR) would be 60-66%, for a revenue based on a crude price of $35, which would jump to 90-99% at today’s price of $70.

3.4 A fair return of 15% IRR to the investing contractor company could be achieved by allowing 2% (to the Investing Company) vs 98% to the government, for crude oil price of $35.

3.5 These results lead to the conclusion that: while the draft law’s fiscal terms and conditions for the PSA are impressive, KRG’s record from its PSA agreements shows windfall profit to the investing contractor. This contravenes Iraq’s national constitution which requires maximum return to the nation.

4. Legal Framework – An Authoritative Independent Legal Interpretation

4.1 Ownership Of Oil Resources

Article 111 is unequivocal that all oil and gas is owned by “all the people of Iraq in all regions and governorates.” The language, on the face of it, does not admit to the ownership of any particular resource by any particular group or geographical or political region. In effect it gives all citizens of Iraq, wherever resident, an undivided interest in all of the oil and gas resources of the country. Notably it does not vest oil and gas resources in the ‘state,’ nor does it allocate the resources to particular regions or governorates. The regions and governorates are addressed solely in the collective form. Moreover it refers to all of the oil and gas resources and does not use the limiting language of “current fields” included in Article 112 First.

Given that oil and gas is the property of the “people” as a whole, any power to alienate the resource by sale or other disposition lies with the “people.” In this regard it is worth noting that the only political entity representing all of the people of Iraq is the Council of Representatives; Article 49, First refers.

4.2 Management Of The Resources

Article 112 First provides that the federal government, with the “producing” governorates and regional governments, shall manage oil and gas “extracted from present fields” subject to a revenue distribution formula. “Management” in Article 112 is not defined nor is it subject to any words of limitation. Thus management should be read in the ordinary sense of conducting or supervising all of the business aspects relating to oil and gas extracted from present fields, eg production, transport, refining, disposition.

Article 112 Second provides that the federal government, again with the producing regional and governorate governments, shall establish the strategic policies for the development of oil and gas in accordance with certain standards. Article 112 Second does not contain the limiting words “extracted from present fields.”

Thus Article 112 provides a general structure for the oil and gas sector in which strategic policies are set on a unified basis for all of the oil and gas resources of the country, and then the implementation of those policies is managed in one case (oil and gas extracted from existing fields) by the federal government with the producing governorates and regional governments, and in the second case (oil and gas not extracted from existing fields) by the regions or the governorates. In the second case the regions and governorates assume their power to manage by virtue of Article 115.

The word “extracted” does not connote a limitation in this management authority but rather should be read as defining what oil and gas resources are subject to the management authority of Article 112 First, ie oil and gas “extracted from present fields.” Article 112 envisions two functions: the establishment of oil and gas policies and management of the oil and gas resource. Nothing suggests a tripartite definition in which “extraction” would not be subject to either the strategic policies or the management function.

4.3 Authority Of The Regions Under Article 112

Article 112 First provides that the “federal government, with the producing governorates and regions” shall undertake the management of the designated resources. Article 112 Second provides that the “federal government, with the producing regional and governorate governments,” shall formulate strategic policies.

Article 112 First provides at the end of the section for the matters addressed in the section to be regulated by a law. The same provision for regulation by a law is not included in Article 112 Second dealing with the formulation of strategic policies. Perhaps, the drafters did not view “policies” as requiring legislation, and that the required law governing management would reflect the policies.

The precise nature of the interaction of the federal government and the regions and governorates under Article 112 is not clear and may have been left deliberately ambiguous. Article 112 by its language and its separation from Article 110 (the exclusive authorities of the federal government) and Article 114 (the shared competencies) is evidently something more than a shared competency but something less than an exclusive competency. Some sort of collaborative or consultative process is required. Two items, however, point to the leadership of the federal government in the process. In both the first and second sections, the federal government is the subject of the sentences and is commanded to act, albeit with the producing regions and governorates. Secondly, in Article 112 First the activity subject to the section is to be regulated by “a law.” The unitary reference to “a law” as elsewhere in the Constitution refers to federal legislation. Thus whatever the form of collaboration between the governmental units, the final action is to be determined by the federal legislative council.

The leadership of the federal government in Article 112 is further reinforced by Article 110 which sets out those areas where the federal government has exclusive authority. Among the exclusive authorities of the federal government are “formulating foreign sovereign economic and trade policy”; and “regulating commercial policy across regional and governorate boundaries in Iraq.” Thus, the shared authority of Section 112 is cabined by the power of the federal government to prescribe and set policies whenever trade or investment crosses national, regional or governorate boundaries or involves trade or investment moving in and out of Iraq. Regional action in violation of such policies would be unconstitutional as it infringes upon areas committed to the exclusive authority of the federal government.

4.4 Limitation On Present Fields

The principal negotiators of Article 112 First appear to agree that that the management authority provided by the section does not apply to all gas and oil resources. Rather it extends to oil and gas “extracted from present fields.” The phrase needs to be broken up into its component parts. Nothing in the constitution suggests that “field” should be given anything but its ordinary understanding in the petroleum industry and in Iraq. The Society of Petroleum Engineers defines field as follows: “Field – An area consisting of a single reservoir or multiple reservoirs all grouped on, or related to, the same individual geological structural feature or stratigraphic condition. The field name refers to the surface area, although it may refer to both the surface and the underground productive formations.”

Rather the controversy surrounds the qualifier “present.” Some including certain Kurdish authorities have construed “present” as meaning “presently producing” or “presently capable of being produced.” The difference is not trivial. In the absence of other limiting language, however, “present” should have its ordinary meaning of “existing.” There is still the issue of present when? Most people seem to believe that it meant existing at the time of the compromise or perhaps more precisely when the Constitution came into effect.

5. Concluding Remarks

5.1 Iraq today is enduring a number of damaging trends of Tsunami dimensions. There is a widespread lack of security and law and order, and killing for reasons of identity, ethnicity, sect, or criminal ends; and a widespread lack of efficiency in government organizations and a near absence of institutional performance or sound management at the centre and especially in the provinces.

5.2 Action to reverse these damaging trends ought to be all-embracing in nature, coordinated and united in approach, having the welfare of country and nation at heart above all considerations.

5.3 This KRG draft petroleum law is tantamount to a sovereign act and, in effect, is a move in itself and by its implications that could encourage fast, unplanned, uncontrolled devolution. This will exacerbate these damaging trends by inducing similar provincial moves among the ‘haves,’ opening the way to border disputes with the ‘have-nots."

5.4 Oil habitat is regional in nature which recognizes no man-made borders of a provincial nature. The pursuit to its exploration, discovery and development requires equally national not local vision and economic planning, which benefits from the economies of scale, sets the right priority, avoids uncontrolled competition, adopts unified licensing policies and submits to the approval of the nation’s representative and elected body, parliament.

5.5 This draft law is not in conformity with the foremost objective of the constitution to preserve the unity of its people, land and sovereignty, nor with the overriding Article 111 which states and stresses that oil and gas are the property of all the nation in all the regions and governorates. The management of oil and gas has been delegated to its national government in consultation or cooperation with the regions and governorates, and so is the case with strategic policies.

5.5 The way forward is through balanced planning by the national government (responsible to all the nation’s representatives) in consultation and cooperation with the provincial government, guided by the principles of fairness, equity, transparency, efficiency and optimization of the benefits to the whole nation. Optimum benefits can only be realized from an optimum oil and gas resource management unconnected to the distribution of revenue.

5.6 Distribution of revenue for social and economic development and other state needs throughout the nation in all its regions and governorates should be entrusted to an independent, transparent and efficient commission elected from among members representing all sectors of the nation, having independent, transparent and efficient minds and attitudes to manage with wisdom, knowledge and equity.

Tariq Shafiq is Director, Petrolog & Associates, and Founding Director Iraq National Oil Company ([email protected]).

VOL. XLIX, No 37, 18-Sept-2006



Kurdistan Regional Government Hydrocarbon Law: A Commentary | Iraq Updates

Originally Posted by DayDream

Voices of Iraq : Day-Exchange (achieve) On Sunday, October 22, 2006-11:28 AM BT
Iraqis : market holidays in either recession or facing price hikes
Dargham of Mohamed Ali al-Hamad Zahi
Baghdad - (Voices of Iraq)
..Baghdad markets are not usual in the days of the holidays a few years ago and severely crowded Krnvala of happiness and joy. .Some markets are suffering from stagnation and inertia, the other witness a remarkable increase in prices.
.Thus describes the Iraqis if the market one day before the blessed Eid al-Fitr.
."Says Alhaji Ahmed Amri owner of a fashion News Agency (Voices of Iraq) Independent "that the demand for men's fashion is not up to the holiday, not even close to where the purchase is very weak and the goods are limited to the import of old, not new models."
."He said Taqi Albldawi owner of a clothing other times that work for us is limited because of the security situation which does not exceed (5) hours in the best conditions at the time were more than (15) hours in the last few years. "
."While Mr. Adib yellow wholesaler "that the transportation costs are high because of the risks faced by the drivers of vehicles in addition to the lack of insurance on goods coming which makes imported goods beaten calculated risk others in addition to the recession experienced by the local market and the weak demand by buyers escape d therefore importer of clothing will be limited Balasteradat does not compare to previous years. "
The Albaoui owner of a children's clothing said the sale of the votes of Iraq "in all local goods is a relic of the past year, which was not successful enough in the sale," and added "I will work to liquidate before the season change without buying more at the present time."
."The shoe shops are not the best state of clothing stores, where he Mushtaq Kadhim owner of a shoe "that the average sales to exceed (25) sets of shoes per day at a time when the increase in the quantities sold on the (300) set daily Therefore, we did not Ntsouk cargo new, but we are working to sell the goods accumulated in Mahlatna."
.Hassanein said that Karim was purchased new clothes for the same occasion, but he bought for his children to the joy of Eid Ayhermanm although it is not going to come out of his home as he told us in the feast.
.Others argue that the market is witnessing a remarkable increase, especially in household items, which is the high prices constitutes a burden on the Iraqi family.
.Abu Ali al-Hajj says "Perhaps the rapid deterioration of security in some parts of Iraq, especially the capital Baghdad, which is considered the main shopping center is the direct reason behind the price increases caused by the reluctance of traders to go to these areas and to provide the local market in various materials, which contributed to the high prices.
."He said Mr. Ahmed Mahdi Ekeli (owner of a shop in the market Alcheorgh) "rapid deterioration of security in Iraq and the dangers of the road leading to Amman and Damascus is paid to the Iraqi merchant not to go to the neighboring countries to bring the goods."
."He added Ekeli "There are reasons that can not be overlooked is Matedi certainly result in higher wages for the transportation of the consumer to a double fold increase in the price of fuel considerably, which forced the Iraqi traders to refuel commercial markets, which have become ones due to the fuel crisis sustainable."
.A grant holidays granted by the Iraqi government to citizens and ordered distributed through agents materials Ethaaeeh additional reason for the price increase Moreover, the absence of the role of oversight entirely to the domestic market.
.The Iraqi government had given each individual the amount (10) of thousands of dinars and the ration card donated by the occasion.
."And Ms. Zainab Al-Alami (housewife), "The budget Mairehg some families is the rise in food prices, especially on children's clothing because of the high demand on them."


Looks to me like they got the 10K.

Cheers!
DayDream

This is puzzling in light of the article about them standing in front of banks to receive their checks though...
and ordered distributed through agents
Could banks be considered agents?

Cheers!
DayDream

p.s I wonder if Neno is gonna be mad that this thread has been highjacked again starting last night? He is gonna be old before his time from dealing with all his children here. Sorry Neno!

It has been reported in a negative way on NPR that the "Credit Cards" have all been issued. But the Negative response was from them that none of the merchants except them. Just adding to the mix here.

Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

With Eid outings and picnics out of the question, Abu Ahmed, like most Iraqis, is also unable to buy his children new clothes as customary for Eid

“What really hurt me most and made me steam with anger is the Iraqi parliamentary decision to give each citizen 10,000 Iraqi dinars ($6.7) on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr,” she said.
“What would this amount do for any one if a pair of children shoes costs 15,000 dinars?” she exclaimed sourly.

Baghdad-Eid (Feature) :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq

What happened to these handouts? And how could they insult their citizens with that amount??

If the cards or checks are distibuted I think they missed a big chance to help the iraqi people. I don't know what to think now. I am thinking they will start to subsidize again in a big way. The government wont stop with one ration card, they will give them out all the time. BACK to the way it was, the people rely on the government for food and gas.

Originally Posted by neno

It has been reported in a negative way on NPR that the "Credit Cards" have all been issued. But the Negative response was from them that none of the merchants except them. Just adding to the mix here.

Well something keeps pricking at my side telling me they received them. I guess thats why I keep mentioning the bank incident. But I'm still holding out hope that they haven't!

Cheers!
DayDream

12. I will move post in order, from this thread to the "History Thread" everytime it gets solong. (My Judgement or the other Mods) If you ever need anything for reference it will be in the "History Thread". Just go there and use the "Search Feature" at the top of each thread.

Read the rules before posting in this "THREAD"!! tks-neno