The Iraqi parliament’s finance committee on Thursday amended two articles of the bill that relate to the Kurdistan Region, prompting the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG| to slam the amendments as “unconstitutional,” labeling them a violation of the previous agreements between Erbil and Baghdad.
“The Federal Supreme Court decision No. 35 prevents the parliament from changing the texts in the budget bills sent by the government,” KRG Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab said.
According to Janab, the federal court decision specifies that the finance committee maintains the right to change the numbers in the bill or transfer them between articles and paragraphs, but the committee cannot add or remove any paragraph from the bill.
“Those who truly want Kurds to remain in Baghdad, and those who value the brotherhood between Kurds and Arabs, are worried. This does not seek to help the closeness between the [Kurdistan] Region and Baghdad, but to ruin the relations between the Region and Baghdad,” Janab said.
The amendments under dispute relate to establishing Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) as the responsible party for selling Kurdistan Region’s oil, decreasing the time for Erbil to pay off its debts from seven years to five, creating an account for Kurdistan Region's oil revenues in the Iraqi central bank, and granting the finance minister the power to authorize the Region's prime minister to make withdrawals from that account. In the previous draft, that power was held by the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.
“We have agreed that the Kurdistan Region is a constitutional entity, which has its own parliament, president, and government. It is illogical to reduce it to a province or even less,” Janab added.
Financial matters are a frequent source of tension between Erbil and Baghdad. Erbil says it regularly does not receive its entitled share of federal funds and Baghdad opposes the Region’s independent oil sales.
The controversial amendments to the bill drew a reaction from the Kurdish officials who blasted the decision of the committee.
“A group in the Iraqi parliament’s finance committee have introduced changes to the draft federal budget, violating the agreement [with Sudani],” Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani tweeted on Saturday, referring to a deal to resume exports of the Region’s oil that were halted following an arbitration row between Iraq and Turkey.
Shakhawan Abdullah, second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, called on Saturday for the suspension of the finance committee for breaching parliamentary rules that limit the number of committee members.
Iraqi MPs responded to Abdullah’s letter, calling the text agreed upon “irreversible” and stating that it cannot be obstructed by anyone.
The 2023 budget includes a record $152 billion in spending, 12.6 percent of which is allocated for the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq did not have a budget law in 2022 due to political wrangling between the country’s different political powers following the 2021 election. The lack of a budget jeopardized the oil-dependent economy, with Baghdad prevented from taking advantage of soaring oil prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to combat poverty and bring much-needed economic stability.
