ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will send a delegation to Baghdad next week to discuss with Iraqi officials details of the federal budget for next year and address its concerns before the draft bill is sent to parliament for a vote. The KRG’s Council of Ministers convened on Wednesday to form the Baghdad-bound committee, who will talk to the federal government about Kurdistan Region’s share of the 2020 federal budget as Erbil seeks to actively take part in the bill’s drafting. In the meeting, “a committee was formed which will be headed by the ministers of finance and planning to meet with the finance ministry of the Iraqi government to discuss details of the budget draft for 2020,” KRG spokesman Jutiar Adil said in a press conference following the meeting. The KRG is sending the delegation to the Iraqi capital “to address our concerns before the draft budget is submitted to the Iraqi Council of Ministers” and finally to the federal parliament for a vote, he added. Adil reiterated Kurdistan Region’s will to “explore all avenues” for dispute settlement with the federal government within the framework of the Iraqi constitution. “It is the intention of the Kurdistan Region to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government that protects the constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan,” Adil explained. The delegation will also be inviting Iraqi parliamentary committees on oil, gas, finance and legal affairs to visit the Kurdistan Region in an attempt to further enrich mutual understanding and build on already improving relations between the regional and federal governments, according to a readout from the KRG media office. A KRG delegation will meet with the Kurdistan Region parliament tomorrow to share with lawmakers the latest in Erbil-Baghdad dialogue updates over outstanding conflicts. Disputes between Erbil and Baghdad over natural resources and independent oil and gas sales by the KRG have lingered for years. Relations between the two plunged in 2014 when the KRG began exporting oil directly to Turkey. Baghdad responded by cutting the KRG’s budget share. Facing the budget cut, falling oil prices, a costly war with the Islamic State (ISIS), and hosting nearly 2 million displaced Iraqis, the KRG introduced a wildly unpopular salary-saving scheme for public employees in 2014 that lasted nearly four years. Iraq’s 2019 budget bill stipulates Iraqi federal government will pay KRG salaries regardless of whether other terms are honored. For other budget allocations, Baghdad requires the KRG to export 250,000 barrels of oil per day through Iraq’s state oil-marketing company SOMO and hand over all federal revenues to the central treasury. The KRG has yet to hand over a single barrel. In an interview with Rudaw on Wednesday, Iraqi oil minister Thamir Ghadhban warned of the necessity to speed up a resolution to the issue of KRG oil revenue. “There are now detailed discussions taking place about the 2020 budget law within the federal government. I think we should not be taking our time. We should not talk about negotiation anymore; we should talk about working together and implementing the federal budget law, and also agree on the principles that will guide us both for the year 2020,” Ghadhban said.
