The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is heavily dependent on its share of the Iraqi budget, and the KRG has said it cannot pay civil servants without its fair share of federal government money. The Region’s public employees have gone without salaries for much of 2020.
However, the already-existing budget dispute was further complicated in November with Iraqi parliament’s passing of the Fiscal Deficit Coverage Bill. Kurdish MPs staged a walk-out, angered over the obligation of Erbil to hand over an unspecified amount of oil in exchange for the Region’s budget share for the last two months of the year.
KRG officials have expressed their disapproval of the deal, but said they would comply with it.
“We are here to implement what is in the fiscal deficit bill that was passed,” Talabani told the media from Baghdad on Monday. “We are ready to abide by the points of the bill and are only waiting for Baghdad to tell us how much the Kurdistan Region budget share is in return for us abiding by it.”
The Fiscal Deficit Coverage Bill covers the salaries for civil servants in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region for the last two months of this year.
The KRG delegation arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday to settle the prolonged budget dispute between Erbil and Baghdad amid rising tension and civil servant protests in the Kurdistan Region over the past week.
“I ensure that negotiations are ongoing, and will go on until we reach a good deal,” Talabani said in response to rumors that negotiations have failed.
“We are not here to ask for more than we deserve, and we are not here looking for charity,” Talabani added. “A law has been passed and we are here to implement it.”
Negotiations over the terms for accessing the funds in the 2021 budget have already been decided on, according to several politicians in early December.
The KRG has struggled to pay civil servant salaries in full and on time for five years due to the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) group, a drop in oil prices and disputes with the federal government.
