KRG to send reports on oil, other revenues to Baghdad this week: spokesperson

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will send reports on oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad in the next few days to further budget implementation, a KRG spokesperson said on Sunday.

“Following continuous visits of a Kurdistan Region delegation to Baghdad, two important dossiers will be sent to Baghdad this week, one related to expenditures from oil produced in the Kurdistan Region, another related to federal non-oil revenues,” Jotiar Adil told reporters on Sunday.

“I believe the budget will be implemented in the near future. Some of it has already been implemented,” he added.

A Kurdish delegation travelled to Baghdad for a four-day visit last week, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, who said that Erbil and Baghdad are close to finalizing “mechanisms necessary to implement the 2021 budget law.”

The 2021 budget was passed by the parliament in late March after intense, more than three months after it was approved by the cabinet, but the Region is yet to receive its share of federal funds.

Baghdad sending the Kurdistan Region its budget share is conditional on Erbil fulfilling its commitments, which include handing over 250,000 barrels of oil per day, paying back money it borrowed from the Iraqi Trade Bank, sending non-oil revenues and prioritizing paying the salaries of its civil servants and Peshmerga before any other spending.

Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said a committee was working on sending the Region’s share of the budget for May. 

The delay in budget implementation has hindered the salary payments of Kurdistan Region civil servants. On May 26, KRG’s financial assistant, Rebaz Hamlan told Rudaw that he thinks the budget will be implemented in June.

Lawmaker Ali Hama Salih said that the KRG doesn’t have sufficient funds to meet salaries despite having already cut wages of its public employees.

The Kurdistan Region needs 895 billion dinars a month to cover its payroll, amounting to 10.7 trillion dinars a year. Employees who make more than 300,000 Iraqi dinars (approximately $200) per month will see their paycheques cut by 21 percent as a result of the new budget.