“The Kurdish factions met today and decided that they will not vote on the 2018 Iraqi federal budget bill,” Arafat Karam, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) faction, told Rudaw on Tuesday.
The Iraqi parliament is set to sit on Wednesday.
“Let the government instead spend one twelfth of the budget monthly,” Karam said.
Iraqi law stipulates that should a budget bill fail to pass, then the government will only spend one twelfth of the budget to cover operation costs.
The budget has been a contentious issue. Kurdish parties have said bill violates the constitution and have refused to attend parliamentary sessions as their demands were not taken into consideration.
The Kurdish parties insist the Kurdistan Region should receive 17 percent of the budget, as it has been allocated historically. The current draft dedicates 12.6 percent for the Kurdistan Region.
Kurdish lawmakers have also objected to the language used. The bill refers to the “the government of Kurdistan's provinces” instead of the Kurdistan Region.
“The Kurdish factions in the Iraqi parliament are in agreement and like-minded and have decided not to participate in the Iraqi parliament meeting tomorrow,” Arez Abdullah, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) faction, told PUK Media on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he will not allow the KRG to receive 17 percent, saying their portion should be based on the size of the Region’s population.
The IMF has stated that 12.6 percent of the national budget will not be sufficient to meet the KRG’s needs.
Sunni MPs and Shiite blocs have also objected to the bill.
A parliamentary session on the budget was postponed earlier this month after Kurdish and Sunni lawmakers boycotted it and quorum was not met.
The Presidency of Iraq called on the government to amend the budget bill and eliminate violations of the constitution after a meeting on Tuesday between President Fuad Masum, a Kurd, and his three deputies.
The presidency emphasized the need for national consensus on the budget, arguing that “Terrorism benefits from delaying the national consensus and increases external interference in the state,” according to an official statement issued after the meeting.
Baghdad cut the Kurdistan Region’s budget in 2014 when the KRG announced they would export oil independently.
Meetings between the two sides at the ministerial and technocrat level have made some progress. A delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and state oil-marketing company SOMO met with Kurdish officials on Monday. They agreed on a budget-for-oil proposal in which the KRG hands over oil produced in its oil fields in return for 17 percent of budget.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the Iraqi government.
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