ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A delegation from Kurdistan Region’s finance ministry arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss amendments to Iraq’s previously-approved 2025 budget law and address obstacles to the payment of the salaries of its civil servants.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been working to redirect funds from the Region’s share of the federal budget to address salary shortfalls that persisted throughout last year.
“The aim of the visit is to discuss the amendments to the schedules of the Iraqi budget law for 2025 and solve the obstacles facing the salaries of salaried employees and civil servants in the Kurdistan Region,” read a statement from the Kurdish finance ministry.
The Iraqi lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill on Tuesday that seeks to amend an article from the budget law with the aim of helping the resumption of Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, which have been halted since March 2023 after Iraq won a case against Turkey at a Paris-based arbitration court for exporting the Kurdish oil.
Changes in the law, which include an increase in the amount producing companies make from producing oil in the Kurdistan Region, could lead to the resumption of Kurdish oil exports.
KRG has been almost fully reliant on Baghdad to pay the salaries of its civil servants since the halt, rendering it unable to pay them on time and in full.
Baghdad did not pay the KRG public employees for December and the fate of the January payment remains unclear.
