Shafaq News-Baghdad
Iraq'sparliament has placed reform of the national tax system among the priorities ofits new legislative term, a member of the Services Committee, Mohammedal-Hasnawi, told Shafaq News, as complaints from citizens mount that a wideningarray of government taxes and fees far outweighs the public services theyreceive in return.
Lawmakersintend to pass a new law built around tax fairness and the protection of low-and middle-income families, said al-Hasnawi, who described the current systemas shifting the cost of the state's fiscal deficit onto ordinary taxpayers. Several members have submitted proposals calling for a comprehensive overhaulof tax policy, aimed at curbing the concentration of capital and distributingthe financial load more evenly.
The deductionsare already visible on payslips. Among them is a monthly charge of 25,000 Iraqidinars ($19) tied to the health sector, alongside further fees attached to arange of government services.
Residentsinterviewed by Shafaq News say they pay more and get less. In the health sector,families are pushed toward private hospitals whenever someone falls ill, saidAbbas Kadhim, because what citizens pay "should be matched by a properlevel of service."
A second frontis electricity: collection charges reach about 200,000 dinars ($153) a month insome homes, even though the national grid supplies only four to five hours ofpower a day.
"Everythinghas become subject to fees, from food and medicine to the simplest governmenttransactions," said Azhar al-Saadi. A single piece of paperwork canrequire as much as 100,000 dinars loaded onto a bank card, and so many chargesstack up that an employee's salary, in her words, "returns to the statethe same day" it arrives.
For vehicleowners, the squeeze starts at registration: from about 30,000 dinars for asmall car to 300,000 dinars for a larger one, on top of road and bridge tollslevied while the roads themselves are left "full of potholes andbumps," said Aqeel, a driver. Volunteer groups have begun patching someroutes after a rise in accidents, a sign, to him, of how far "the feescollected have drifted from the services provided."
Students carrytheir own version of the burden. Public universities levy charges under "variouslabels" and require them to pay for electronic applications just to seetheir exam results. Reham al-Abboudi, a university student, revealed that manynow obtain their grades informally through contacts on campus, "instead ofsubscribing to the paid applications."
The Iraqiconstitution guarantees social security, health care, and education as basicrights under articles 30, 31, and 34. Residents invoke those provisions mostoften when they argue that the fees they pay should track the quality of whatthe state delivers.
To Khalidal-Jabri, a member of the Higher Committee for Tax Reform, a body tasked withmodernizing Iraq's fiscal system, taxes and customs duties are not revenuetools but instruments for steering the economy, encouraging investment, andprotecting domestic production. Iraq still runs them through a dated approachthat makes them feel punitive, and shifting to digital administration andmodern oversight is essential to build non-oil revenue. "A successfuleconomy is not built on higher taxes, but on smart management that producesgrowth before revenue," he said.
Al-Hasnawistressed that the Council of Representatives has placed the tax system on thepriorities of its new legislative term, and is moving toward enacting a new lawaimed at achieving tax fairness and protecting low- and middle-income groups.
: Delayed reform or fiscal shock? Iraq’s tax measures test state capacity
