ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A high-level Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks on drafting the 2027 federal budget bill, with securing Erbil’s "constitutional share and financial entitlements” topping its agenda, the KRG’s media department said in a statement.
“A high-level delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government arrived in Baghdad to hold a series of meetings with relevant ministries of the federal government,” the statement noted, detailing that the representatives include Erbil’s Finance Minister Awat Janab Noori and Natural Resources Minister Kamal Mohammed as well as senior officials from the KRG’s Council of Ministers and its Diwan.
"The delegation is scheduled to meet first with the federal finance ministry, followed by meetings with the ministries of planning and oil," the statement added, underlining that "the main objective of the visit is the direct participation of the KRG in drafting the federal budget bill for the fiscal year 2027, and securing the Kurdistan Region's constitutional and financial share and entitlements within the draft law."
The visit comes just under three weeks after Erbil’s finance ministry said it submitted a proposal for the Kurdistan Region’s shares of the 2027 federal budget to Baghdad with “all of the financial entitlements, constitutional demands, and needs” of the KRG, including the “full salaries” for public servants and pensioners, as well as payments for “disabled veterans, [former] political prisoners, and the proud families of martyrs” central to the draft.
The visit comes less than three weeks after Erbil's finance ministry said it submitted a budget proposal to Baghdad outlining the Kurdistan Region's demands for its share of the 2027 federal budget, encompassing “all financial entitlements, constitutional demands, and needs” of the KRG.
The proposal includes "full salaries" for public servants and pensioners, payments for "disabled veterans, [former] political prisoners, and the proud families of martyrs," and "equalizing the salaries and financial entitlements" of the Region's Peshmerga forces and retirees with those in federal Iraq, the ministry said in a late August statement.
The draft also urges restoring "promotion rights for Kurdistan Region employees, which had been suspended for several years due to the financial crisis," transitioning contract workers to permanent status, allocating an "investment budget for service projects," and securing funds for "medicine and medical supplies,” among other things.
In its Tuesday statement, the KRG's media department said the Kurdish delegation in Baghdad would "present the Region's vision and demands" and hold discussions on oil-related issues, with the overarching goal of reaching "a mutual understanding and joint agreement with the federal government to guarantee the rights and entitlements of the Kurdistan Region in the 2027 federal budget."
The development comes as the Iraqi parliament and finance ministry began drafting the 2027 budget bill in mid-2026 under Iraq's Financial Management Law, with a draft scheduled for parliamentary submission by mid-October.
It also coincides with Iraq's planned shift away from traditional line-item budgeting toward a program-and-performance-based budgeting (PBB) framework starting in the 2027 fiscal year. Under the new model, federal expenditures will be organized around broad strategic sectors, with funding tied to measurable deliverables, key performance indicators, and enforced execution timeframes.
Accordingly, the shift may introduce a new dynamic to Erbil-Baghdad fiscal relations, as regional requests for funding will increasingly be assessed against objective outcomes and standardized sector metrics, demanding greater administrative coordination and data transparency between the two governments.
Kurdish officials have in recent months expressed optimism about the current state of relations, with KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani confirming in early June that Baghdad seeks to open a "new page" with Erbil. He further expressed confidence that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi would uphold the Region's "constitutional rights and financial entitlements."
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
