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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation is in Baghdad for discussions on Monday with Iraqi government officials on what a draft for the 2021 budget will look like.
The visiting delegation arrived in Baghdad on Sunday. Its members are deputy planning minister Zagros Fatah, and head of the KRG finance ministry's budget department Parikhan Nuri.
"Kurds are taking part in the preparation of the 2021 draft budget. The KRG delegates are working in coordination with the Iraqi finance ministry to prepare the draft. This is a great step forward," Ahmed Safar, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Sunday.
According to Safar, this is the first time that KRG representatives will take part in the drafting of Iraq's annual budget.
The KRG delegation's visit to Baghdad comes just over a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he had urged the Iraqi federal government to "clinch a budget deal" with the KRG.
Pompeo's comment followed KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's announcement that they had reached a temporary deal, in which Baghdad will send 320 billion dinars ($270 million) monthly to Erbil for the KRG to pay its civil servants.
MP Safar said that "Baghdad is committed to sending the [$270 million] on a monthly basis, until the 2021 budget law is passed."
Kadhimi and the Iraqi finance ministry have shown "a degree of leniency towards the Kurdistan Region," Safar said, "and this development will become a basis for the resolution of the issues."
"We are confident that next year's budget will be in the interests of the Kurdistan Region," he added.
The Kurdistan Region is heavily dependent on its share of the Iraqi budget, and Kurdish officials have said they cannot pay civil servants without what it says is its fair share of federal government money.
Erbil says it is entitled to its 12.67% share of federal funds, as stipulated by Iraq’s 2019 budget law, while Baghdad says the KRG has not lived up to its end of the deal that includes turning over 250,000 barrels of oil daily to Iraq’s State Organization for the Marketing of Oil (SOMO), a state-owned oil company.
Before the August agreement between premiers Barzani and Kadhimi, Baghdad had not sent funds since April, worsening the KRG's failure to pay complete and full public sector employee salaries this year.
KRG public sector employees have taken to the streets over delays in salary payments. Demonstrations and strikes calling on the KRG's current cabinet to resign have occurred several times in Sulaimani province, while protests by teachers in May over delayed pay in Duhok were shut down.
In more Erbil-Baghdad negotiation, a high-profile KRG delegation will visit Baghdad next week to hammer out an oil and budget agreement with the Iraqi government.
"According to our principal agreement with Baghdad, oil incomes, non-oil incomes and domestic revenues all go to the KRG itself. Only 50 percent of the KRG's border crossings revenues will be given to the Iraqi government," Samir Hawrami, spokesperson for KRG deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani told Rudaw on Sunday.
Erbil expects to subsequently receive a delegation from the Iraqi government to audit all the data from the border crossings in coordination with KRG finance ministry authorities, Hawrami said.
The visiting delegation arrived in Baghdad on Sunday. Its members are deputy planning minister Zagros Fatah, and head of the KRG finance ministry's budget department Parikhan Nuri.
"Kurds are taking part in the preparation of the 2021 draft budget. The KRG delegates are working in coordination with the Iraqi finance ministry to prepare the draft. This is a great step forward," Ahmed Safar, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Sunday.
According to Safar, this is the first time that KRG representatives will take part in the drafting of Iraq's annual budget.
The KRG delegation's visit to Baghdad comes just over a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he had urged the Iraqi federal government to "clinch a budget deal" with the KRG.
Pompeo's comment followed KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's announcement that they had reached a temporary deal, in which Baghdad will send 320 billion dinars ($270 million) monthly to Erbil for the KRG to pay its civil servants.
MP Safar said that "Baghdad is committed to sending the [$270 million] on a monthly basis, until the 2021 budget law is passed."
Kadhimi and the Iraqi finance ministry have shown "a degree of leniency towards the Kurdistan Region," Safar said, "and this development will become a basis for the resolution of the issues."
"We are confident that next year's budget will be in the interests of the Kurdistan Region," he added.
The Kurdistan Region is heavily dependent on its share of the Iraqi budget, and Kurdish officials have said they cannot pay civil servants without what it says is its fair share of federal government money.
Erbil says it is entitled to its 12.67% share of federal funds, as stipulated by Iraq’s 2019 budget law, while Baghdad says the KRG has not lived up to its end of the deal that includes turning over 250,000 barrels of oil daily to Iraq’s State Organization for the Marketing of Oil (SOMO), a state-owned oil company.
Before the August agreement between premiers Barzani and Kadhimi, Baghdad had not sent funds since April, worsening the KRG's failure to pay complete and full public sector employee salaries this year.
KRG public sector employees have taken to the streets over delays in salary payments. Demonstrations and strikes calling on the KRG's current cabinet to resign have occurred several times in Sulaimani province, while protests by teachers in May over delayed pay in Duhok were shut down.
In more Erbil-Baghdad negotiation, a high-profile KRG delegation will visit Baghdad next week to hammer out an oil and budget agreement with the Iraqi government.
"According to our principal agreement with Baghdad, oil incomes, non-oil incomes and domestic revenues all go to the KRG itself. Only 50 percent of the KRG's border crossings revenues will be given to the Iraqi government," Samir Hawrami, spokesperson for KRG deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani told Rudaw on Sunday.
Erbil expects to subsequently receive a delegation from the Iraqi government to audit all the data from the border crossings in coordination with KRG finance ministry authorities, Hawrami said.
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