Abu Shams could not believe that he was finally going to buy his own house after all those years of waiting—that the National Investment Commission had put his name on the list provided to one of the branches of Rafidain Bank. Instead of paying the amount on house rent, he used to give every month during all these long years of life to the landlord. Eventually, he will settle the total amount that is due for his flat, in addition to the monthly rent that should be paid to the bank. However, he was appalled at what he described as “the exorbitant usury” that the citizen had to pay to “the state, not the ushers”. ” Abu Shams, ” a nickname because he fears that if his name is displayed in this report, his bank transaction will be hampered, and he will remain deprived of his dream apartment. In the nineties of the last century, my father, may God have mercy on him, was forced to sell our house due to deterioration in the economic situation and opened a simple project which barely provided for our daily need, says “Abu Shams.”. And hence, the project was eventually lost; we have since been moving from one house to another. Dream amidst the humming of snails. Abu Hoaxes is an employee of the Ministry of Interior. He fought the terrorists, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS; he stayed there until June 9, 2014, when with his colleagues he run away from the breathtakingly empty city of Mosul. “The danger of ISIS diverted us from all the other things, yet regardless of that, the fantasy about claiming a house never left me, as did my partners who suffer the consequences of the lease issue.” I was disappointed moving into the Bismayah complex when it opened. My dream house would have a garage and a little garden even if only for a motorbike. Yet, days went by to no avail, but my dream lingered. “After searching, trying, and using connections,” Abu Shams recollects, “I got an exception late last year for a 120-square-meter apartment.” One exception is a specific authorization from a government or parliamentary official. I started the procedures, and after several long reviews, my name reached to one of Rafidain Bank’s branches. I rushed through the operations and paid the down payment as I didn’t believe the dream would come true. Unprecedented government interest on their part “But once my joy vanished, I have reviewed my transaction records and bank instructions that I had copied leafing through them in the hope that one day I would finally be home owner. I had taken a photo of it on my phone, but I was shocked by something that I did not see, or expect, before buying it. I had failed to read it. The amount of the bank revenue, Abu Hoaxes said, was not 4% as the Rafidain Bank board states, but in fact almost half the first advance amount. He said that while other people and companies are engaged in usury, they at least charge interest on the principal amount not more than 30%. But “what the government banks do, the usurers did not do, even the Western banks whose greed we know about and about which we watch some movies did not impose such interest, 50% on government money that is basically the people’s money?” “I also saw that I had to pay a 42 thousand dinar monthly insurance premium, or about four million and 500 thousand dinar annual payment. This is true even though I was not asked whether I wanted insurance for my apartment and did not seek it either. It was imposed upon me; everyone knows that Iraqi insurance companies only pilfers money from citizens without reimbursed returns. Thousands of flats burned destroyed in the Bismayah complex, and their owners were not paid,” Abu Shams said. Shams listened to the directions on the board of the branch of the bank from which he was promoting by General Administration of Rafidain Bank: Apartment price: 85,680 dollars equal 113 million 97 thousand 600 dinars on the official rate of 1,320 dinars for every dollar. The bank loan is 101 million, 7879,000, and 840 dinars from the buying price of the apartment, from the total cost of which the down payment is 11 million, 309,000 and 760 dinars. Income from month to month: 170.000 212 dinars. 250 months is 25 years for the loan repayment period. The total bank income; the payback period for a loan of 300 months divided by its monthly interest of 170,212 dinars yields 51 million, 63 thousand, and 600 dinars, or 50 percent, instead of the declared percentage of 4 percent by Rafidain Bank’s overall management. “I applied for a twenty-million-dinars advance in the last quarter of 2019. My husband had the intention of opening a simple project that would help us secure our daily needs,” governmental worker Haifa Hadi said to Shafaq News Agency, but she highly regrets it now. “Once I am misled; that is it.” At the end of the same year, I got the advance; unfortunately, they only paid 19 million and 440 thousand diners. Then I asked the bank employee, “Why didn’t you tell me then that you wanted a sponsor, and I basically have a MasterCard issued by you?” She responded that this was the sponsor’s charge. “These are the stages,” she answered. It was then that she noted, “This was the first surprise; it is easy in comparison to the bank’s interest.” Although the General Administration says that the interest should be eight percent of the principle, the real interest rate is fifty percent. For the past four years, I have been paying thirty million dinars monthly; when I asked about this, they told me that the interest is computed by six times the years of repayment. Hadi says long before Covid-19, “My husband couldn’t kick off this vital project from the first wave of the Corona pandemic long with the curfew that extended for almost a year.” “We were obliged to withdraw all the time from the advanced amount in order to achieve our needs, and the amount decreased to a point had no more use with any project,” says Hadi. “My salary is still deficient because of this ill-fated advanced.” The main issue is that the “I was once taken advantage of by the government and its banks,” recalls Hadi. “Thanks God the amount was somewhat affordable, and there was only a year and a half left to pay it off.” His essay reaches its end here. Thus, neither me nor my better half will allow the banks to take advantage of us for such a long period. One taste would be plenty. The poor will simply borrow. “Since the public authority banks sent off advances and credits over a long time back, we, the representatives at the banks, have not applied for them with the exception of when we are compelled to do as such because of the great bank revenue,” a Rafidain Bank employee who disliked to identify herself said. She states, “I have been working in banks for about 35 years now; I am conversant with the financial frameworks in some European countries and America. Even if this is only information, it emboldens me to make the statement without any doubt that the banking interest rates of our banks are non-comparable globally.”. “Bank interest in Iraq can safely be said to fall under the name of theft, fraud, or extortion in the name of the state,” says Aqeel Al-Ansari, the angry Iraqi banker now living in London while working in a British bank. “For a government bank to charge interest of fifty to sixty percent on a meager sum used to purchase a car, launch a modest project, or buy a house and then operate for a period of time commensurate with the amount used is irrational and illogical.”. “Although there are banks in capitalist countries, such as in Europe and the United States of America, that are known for being avaricious and greedy, they are still nothing compared to what is happening in Iraq. For example, you can apply for a loan from a West bank with an interest rate of no less than 10% if you wish to buy a car. Your monthly payment will, at any rate, be less than the total including interest. You could go to the bank after one year or two and say, “I want to buy a newer car and I need an additional amount.” They will give you what you need, and unlike Iraq, you will be able to sell the car fast and effortlessly. This is weird. Al-Ansari verifies that what passes in Iraq is, in reality, a blackmail campaign the government shoots at its people. It exploits his need for a house, to start a small project or to buy a car; pays him outrageous bank interest, which finally leads to the failure of the project or a decrease in its profits as a result of the monthly payment, and an increase in the cost of real estate plus cars. If we want to use conciliatory language, this is a somewhat strange position; nevertheless, it is difficult to exactly describe given its hostility. He believes that the kind of people who run the financial system and design its policies are people who have nothing to do with money or the economy, neither closely nor remotely. “Bismayah Complex, what is it to you?” “If asked what we have to pay for it, the answer is that the price of a square meter of an apartment in Bismayah Complex is 630 dollars, while the real value of the meter is 300 dollars. The state imposed double the price on the citizen to cover the costs of the infrastructure of the project, including streets, water and electricity networks, sewage, schools, and others, in addition to the road linking Bismayah Complex to the city of Baghdad,” said Economic expert Nasser Al-Kanani. He continues, “The apartment, which is supposed to be 100 square meters according to the contract concluded between the citizen and the Investment Authority, is actually 85 square meters, meaning that all apartments have areas of 100, 120, and 140 square meters, less 15 square meters, which is the area of the corridor leading to all the apartments, in addition to the area of the elevators and stairs.” Thus, every unit has 140 square meters overall. Al-Kanani says, “The problem is not whether it is fraud and deception by the state, but rather the silence of the people about it. Why did the citizen decline to speak out about the 15 square meters the government seized from him and turned into roadways, schools, and other things at his expense? Was this incidence qualified as “fraud and deception by the state against the citizen”? Anyone who resides in Bismayah can boldly rip off the door of one of the schools and declare: I paid for this door; I am the owner of it. Al-Kanani notes that “in the meantime, the resident is the party who paid the costs of the project’s infrastructure, and the state didn’t not end over here, but rather granted the resident loans with usurious interest rates that are found in no bank in the world, even in capitalist countries such as Europe and America, because there is no interest that reaches half of the initial amount of credit.” ”The state has not given the citizen in the Bismayah complex anything,” he said Article 30 of the Iraqi constitution says ”the state guarantees the citizen the right to housing and a decent life,” hence the state has to give the citizen free accommodation and employment chances. Still, the citizen pays all expenses and makes a major contribution to the earnings of the state. “The price per square meter in the Bismayah Complex when the Investment Authority started selling was according to the dollar exchange rate at the time 1180 dinars per dollar, but now the state calculates the exchange rate at 1320 dinars, which means there is a difference estimated at about 140 dinars, which the citizen bears; the state is the one which raised the exchange rate and the citizen is not to blame.” Also mentioned by him is the variation in Al-Kanani asserts, “There are two types of credits in all countries, including those of entrepreneurs as well. First of all, the interest rate determined when one country lends money to another is constrained to 1% to 1.5%. The loans people get from banks to purchase houses do not exceed 2% of the original loan value.”. MPs “evade.” Two days of relentless pursuits to get a word from the members of the Parliamentary Finance Committee did not get responses to the representatives. No calls or condolences from the representatives who stood several times before the parliament regarding the rise in the bank interest rate as they evaded the issue and said they didn’t have any of the second knowledge of it. One of the representatives told the reported with effrontery, “The interest charges by Iraqi banks are not at any rate in any bank in the world”. He said the issue has absolutely no political sensitivity and he will raise it during one of the coming up parliamentary sessions with our correspondent. He however did not wish his name published. “We are an executive body and we have no relation to determining the prices of housing units and the bank interest due on housing loans,” a conscientious source in the General Administration of Rafidain Bank said. Rafidain holds the Investment Authority responsible. “We agree upon these things with the National Investment Authority,” he said. The private and public banks are private enterprises and have no power except for the Central Bank of Iraq. All of their policies, procedures, loans, and financial facilities they provide, and interest rate they impose are completely independent of the government, its ministries, and institutions, according to many statements and declarations from the National Bank of Iraq, the real banks, government ministries, and representatives, all along.
