Shafaq News / The Parliamentary Services Committee expressed today, Wednesday, its strong rejection of the Cabinet’s decision to renew the licenses of mobile phone companies for the next five years, while proposing the establishment of governmental mobile companies.

A member of the committee, Manar Abdul Muttalib Al-Shadidi, told Shafaq News agency, "the services committee refuses to renew the licenses of mobile", renewing an invitation to its committee to, "set up governmental mobile companies because Iraq suffers from a permanent lack of funds".

She considered that, "telecommunications revenues are higher than oil and not at risk of any decline if the demand regresses", adding that, "mobile phone companies are reluctant to pay their debts to the state and drain the citizen's income by paying high prices of subscriptions that go to the pockets of the corrupt, in addition to significantly deteriorating services".

She criticized, "the state's approach to internal and external borrowing to confront financial crises, ignoring surplus financial resources and revenues".

The Iraqi government announced yesterday the renewal of mobile phone company licenses for an additional five years in exchange for paying 50% of its debts and launching the 4G service, which sparked outrage and resentment among the parliamentary and popular circles.