Iraqi parliament resumes voting on federal budget
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s parliament convened again late on Friday to continue voting on the federal budget bill after adjourning the session several times due to disagreements between parliamentary blocs on a number of issues, including the budget share of the provinces and the Kurdistan Region.
The legislature met on Thursday to vote on the federal budget bill after postponing it several times, but voted on only six articles. Article Two, which details government income and expenditures, was skipped and Article Four, which authorised the government to reallocate unspent funds, was removed from the bill.
Parliament reconvened on Friday evening after a number of meetings between the parliament presidency and political blocs.
Lawmakers resumed the meeting by passing Article Two and 11 other articles, including Article 12 about the Region's share.
The budget, which covers the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, includes a record $152 billion in spending, 12.6 percent of which was allocated for the Kurdistan Region in the original draft. However, it is not clear if any changes have been made to the final numbers.
Iraqi parliament also passed Article 13, which details Kurdistan Region's oil export in coordination with the Iraqi government and handover of its non-oil revenues to Baghdad.
The Iraqi government approved the bill in March and sent it to the legislature. The parliament was set to vote on the budget late last month, but disagreements within the finance committee, concerning amendments relating to the Kurdistan Region, delayed the vote.
Kurdish blocs are divided, with some supporting a requirement that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) pay back 10 percent of the money it cut from its civil servants as part of austerity measures in the past several years. The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is among those opposed and Soran Omar, a lawmaker from the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), told Rudaw that this section was removed from Article 14.
Sherwan Dubardani, a KDP MP, said more changes have been made to the articles related to the Kurdistan Region's share.
There are also disputes between Sunnis and Shiites over the share of funds for the provinces with some complaining about how much money is allocated to their province.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) sought an addition that could allow it receive Sulaimani’s share directly from Baghdad, bypassing the KRG, but this has been strongly opposed by the KDP and the KRG.
KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in a tweet called on Kurdish blocs to “treat the budget bill with national responsibility and protect the Region’s status as an entity, constitutional rights and financial entitlements.”
He also called on them to “oppose any attempts to weaken the position of the Region.”
Updated at 11:20 PM