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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi Council of Ministers is scheduled to meet late Saturday, with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) pushing its Kurdish ministers to raise the issue of a monthly 120 billion dinar ($91.5 million) non-oil revenue transfer and seek changes to a previous cabinet decision, according to sources.
An Iraqi source, speaking to Rudaw's Nahro Mohammed on condition of anonymity, said Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is set to chair the cabinet meeting late Saturday, adding that the agenda includes the issue of the KRG's non-oil revenues. Baghdad has obliged Erbil to transfer 120 billion dinars in local non-oil income each month in return for receiving its share of the federal budget.
Rudaw has learned that Iraq's finance minister intends to deduct the 120 billion dinars from the KRG's share for June if Erbil fails to transfer the sum in full. A senior KRG source told Rudaw on Saturday that the Region is trying to prevent the deduction.
"We are making every effort to ensure that the Iraqi finance minister does not deduct that 120 billion dinars from the salary transfer funds," the source said, warning that doing so would hit the 43 billion dinars in oil revenue earmarked for contract employees' salaries.
"For this purpose, all the data and information have been given to the Kurdish ministers so that, in today's session... they can provide the necessary clarification, prevent the deduction of that money, and have the decision amended," the source said.
A delegation from the KRG met with the federal counterparts in Baghdad in recent days.
Kurdistan Region's finance ministry said in a statement on Saturday that, during discussions with federal officials, it requested that the KRG transfer only half of its non-oil domestic revenue to the Iraqi government, as stipulated in the latest budget law.
