Shafaq News– Baghdad

Iraq’s Saturday parliamentary session on customs, border, and tax authorities amounted to little more than a “media display,” a lawmaker said, as moves intensified to summon caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for talks on non-oil revenues.

Speaking with Shafaq News, Badr bloc MP Shakir Abu Turab al-Tamimi contrasted Iraq’s handling of tax and customs revenues with international practice, noting that “most countries benefit from all forms of tax collection,” while Iraq, “particularly under the current caretaker government,” has moved in the opposite direction.

“The largest corruption files currently exist within the bodies hosted by parliament in today’s session,” he added.

Separately, a parliamentary source told our agency that, during the session, several lawmakers requested the speakership to host al-Sudani, the finance minister, and other senior officials to discuss the volume of non-oil revenues, citing Iraq’s ongoing economic pressures.

The debate unfolded as parliament, under newly elected Speaker Haibet Al-Halbousi, reviewed non-oil income outlined in the federal budget. According to MP Ibtisam Al-Hilali, lawmakers scrutinized revenues from taxes, fees, and collections, particularly a cabinet decision imposing new levies on vehicles, goods, services, electronics, medicines, and other imports—duties that reached up to 30 percent and “already slowed market activity.”

Read more: Iraq’s delicate maneuver: Boosting revenue without crushing consumer power