The KRG held its weekly meeting in Erbil on Wednesday, discussing a range of issues, including the Kurdistan Region’s financial issue with Baghdad.
The finance minister “presented some mechanisms to show the [Kurdistan] Regional Government’s commitment in regard to the non-oil incomes and how to share them with Baghdad in accordance with the constitution, and the federal budget law,” read a statement from the KRG.
“This is an initiative by the Regional Government to resolve this issue in a way that the incomes would not cause obstacles pertaining to the payment of the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements, primarily the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants,” it added.
Baghdad has paid the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s public employees for the first three months of this year. Iraq’s finance minister said on Friday that they would continue paying the salaries.
“We will continue to send the salaries to the Kurdistan Region as per the federal court ruling,” Taif Sami told Rudaw in Washington, referring to a February ruling by the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court that ordered the federal government to pay the salaries of the KRG civil servants and for Erbil to hand over all oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad.
The KRG has failed to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that worsened when its oil exports were halted a year ago following a court ruling on a dispute between Iraq and Turkey over Kurdistan Region’s independent oil sales.
Erbil has repeatedly accused Baghdad of not making regular payments of its share of federal funds. Last June, Iraq passed a three-year budget of which the Kurdistan Region's share is 12.6 percent. Baghdad has claimed it has fully implemented its financial obligations to the KRG, including through loans to assist the Region to cover its payroll.
