Erbil rejects its reduced share in Iraq’s 2018 budget as unconstitutional
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The cabinet of ministers of the Kurdish government in Erbil has dismissed the drafting of Iraq’s 2018 budget without Kurdish participation as a violation of the constitution and the country’s financial laws, urging Baghdad to give the region its fair share of the national budget.
KRG officials had long complained that Baghdad never sent Erbil its full 17 percent in the past, but this is the first time to official reduce the share by law since the constitution was passed in 2005.
In recent days the central government has also hinted that it will start dealing with the Kurdistan Region as separate provinces and give them their share of the national budget individually, something denounced by Erbil as an attempt to dismantle the constitutionally recognized KRG as an autonomous region.
“The draft of the budget has been prepared irrespective of the federal law and the Kurdistan Region has been deliberately ignored,” read the KRG statement. “It also mentions the Kurdistan Region as northern provinces in clear violation of Article 121 that recognizes the Kurdistan Regional Government and its authorities.”
Erbil says that Baghdad “must give Kurdistan Region its fair share of the budget, especially given that there isn’t an accurate census in Iraq but 17 percent of Iraq’s population has been agreed on in the constitution,”
“Dealing directly with the provinces and bypassing the KRG will not do the people of the Kurdistan Region any good,” the statement reads.
The KRG also warns that its authority as enshrined in the Iraqi constitution must and cannot be reduced “and the constitution even bars any amendment that may lead to a reduction to the authorities of the Kurdistan region,”
At the end of the statement the KRG urges the Iraqi government to halt the current draft of the constitution and come to the negotiating table for a better draft that would take into account the best interests of the Kurdistan Region “because reducing its share of the budget is the collective punishment of its people,”
In a four-point statement on Sunday Erbil denounced the reduction of KRG’s share of the federal budget from 17 percent to 12.6 percent as “violating of section 3 of Article 121 of the constitution,”
KRG officials had long complained that Baghdad never sent Erbil its full 17 percent in the past, but this is the first time to official reduce the share by law since the constitution was passed in 2005.
In recent days the central government has also hinted that it will start dealing with the Kurdistan Region as separate provinces and give them their share of the national budget individually, something denounced by Erbil as an attempt to dismantle the constitutionally recognized KRG as an autonomous region.
“The draft of the budget has been prepared irrespective of the federal law and the Kurdistan Region has been deliberately ignored,” read the KRG statement. “It also mentions the Kurdistan Region as northern provinces in clear violation of Article 121 that recognizes the Kurdistan Regional Government and its authorities.”
Erbil says that Baghdad “must give Kurdistan Region its fair share of the budget, especially given that there isn’t an accurate census in Iraq but 17 percent of Iraq’s population has been agreed on in the constitution,”
“Dealing directly with the provinces and bypassing the KRG will not do the people of the Kurdistan Region any good,” the statement reads.
The KRG also warns that its authority as enshrined in the Iraqi constitution must and cannot be reduced “and the constitution even bars any amendment that may lead to a reduction to the authorities of the Kurdistan region,”
At the end of the statement the KRG urges the Iraqi government to halt the current draft of the constitution and come to the negotiating table for a better draft that would take into account the best interests of the Kurdistan Region “because reducing its share of the budget is the collective punishment of its people,”
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