By John Lee.

The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Iraqi Stock Exchange has reportedly called for a five-year tax holiday for companies listing on the Iraqi bourse, to encourage companies to float their shares.

Laith al-Tamimi also called for the Registrar of Companies at the Ministry of Trade to expedite the incorporation by companies wishing to list on the stock market.

Regarding the requirement for mobile phone operators to be listed on the exchange, he said that Asiacell’s application had “reached an advanced stage”.

(Source: Al Sabaah)

Customs duty increases have been postponed by the Iraqi Finance Ministry due to the high cost of goods, according to Aknews.

Duty was due to go up from 5% on all goods – a rate said to have been set low to encourage trade with Iraq – to as much as 30%. To put that into context, the US, which has one of the lowest rates in the world, has an average customs duty of 3%.

A parliamentary committee on economy and investment has criticised the decision, saying this will have a negative effect on the Iraqi economy.

The Investment Committee’s Nahida al-Daini told AKnews that the announcement was a surprise and would have undesirable consequences.

“Not applying the customs law means allowing poor quality goods enter the Iraqi market without any controls, as well as damaging the businesses of local producers due to competition from the imported goods,” said Daini.

(Source: Aknews)

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) stated on Thursday that the assumed value of taxs in the 2011 budget is amounted to 2.7 trillion Iraqi dinars, that is 3% of the state budget.

Muzher Mouhammed Saleh, the adviser of the ICB, told AKnews that the tax file is semi-disabled in Iraq due to the poor performance of tax planning services, and because of citizens avoiding paying tax.

He said that if the Iraqi Finance Ministry wanted to activate the tax for the Iraqi people, then it should carry out educational and awareness operations about the importance of taxes in the re-construction of the country as an important financial resource for the government to finance its economic needs.

The tax sector in Iraq was semi-disabled in recent years because of the economic and security situations in the country that led to limiting the tax system to the sector of employees and traders only.

(Source: AKnews)