SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Senior Kurdish officials are in a meeting regarding a loan bill approved by the Iraqi Council of Representatives without Kurds’ consent.
The Iraqi parliament voted early on Thursday to approve the fiscal deficit financing bill, which allows the federal government to borrow 12 trillion Iraqi dinars ($10 billion) in internal and external loans in order to pay salaries of public servants. The loan was decreased from 42 trillion Iraqi dinars.
Kurdish lawmakers walked out of the session due to their concern about the Kurdistan Region’s share set in the fiscal deficit financing bill.
The law commits the Kurdistan Region to hand over non-oil revenues and an amount of oil that SOMO indicates to the federal government in exchange for an amount of money as payment for the Region’s public servants.
Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Rewaz Fayaq said on Sunday that the meeting of the senior officials from the Kurdistan Region Presidency, Kurdistan Regional Government and parliament would be “advisory”.
“A meeting with Kurdish representatives in Baghdad has been delayed for an unknown time,” Fayaq told reporters.
“The meeting was delayed to allow the parties and Kurdish members in the Iraqi parliament to participate in the meeting,” she added.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Politburo called for the postponement of the meeting in order to allow all parties having members in the Iraqi parliament to participate in the meeting.
Lawmakers from PUK, Gorran, Kurdistan Islamic Group, Kurdistan Islamic Union, and the independent MPs rejected to participate in the meeting.
