Iraqi cabinet approves 1 million housing plots as national strategic project

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaydi, held its regular eighth session on Tuesday, approving a one-million housing-plots initiative as a national strategic project to be developed across the country with full infrastructure. The cabinet established a high-level committee headed by the prime minister and including relevant ministers and heads of agencies to oversee implementation. Law No. 2010/19 was amended to impose a fixed 35 percent income tax on all foreign companies operating in Iraq, including foreign oil firms, as part of fiscal reforms. In the energy sector, the cabinet approved 25,000 megawatts of additional electricity contracts for this year within the 2026 budget framework, which will be prepared under a program-based budgeting approach. An earlier preliminary agreement signed with ExxonMobil was excluded from the scope of Decision No. 2018/48, and two contracts of the Basra Oil Company were awarded to Halliburton's Iraq branch. On health, the government transferred 30 billion dinars to the Health Ministry for medicine procurement and approved payments from funds remaining under the thousand-school construction project.