Iraq removes five million ineligible names from food ration card system

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Trade Ministry has removed more than five million ineligible names from the country’s food ration card system, Trade Minister Atheer al-Ghurairi said Thursday, describing it as a milestone in efforts to eliminate waste and ensure subsidies reach their intended beneficiaries.

The ministry said the removals followed “comprehensive census and auditing processes and precise data matching,” identifying unreal records including travelers outside the country, duplicate names, deceased individuals and high-income earners. It said the step would “stop the large waste of public funds caused by these inaccurate and outdated records for many years.”

The ministry said it is continuing monitoring and auditing programs alongside electronic modernization, and called on citizens to update their data through official digital platforms, promising “a qualitative leap in digital services” in the next phase.

The ration card system was introduced in the 1990s to provide Iraqi households with subsidized staples including flour, rice, sugar and cooking oil, and remains a central pillar of the country’s social welfare framework. The latest removals follow an earlier round in late 2025 when around 3.1 million entries were blocked as duplicates, deceased individuals or travelers, bringing the total number of names removed from the system to more than eight million.