SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The federal government will keep sending 320 billion Iraqi dinars to the Kurdistan Region, a Kurdish representative said on Monday, after Kurds expressed concern over a loan law adopted by the Iraqi parliament.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative in Baghdad Faris Issa said the federal government would continue sending the amount which Baghdad and Erbil agreed on in August.
“According to the previous agreement between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region, Baghdad will send 320 billion Iraqi dinars [to Erbil] until the federal budget for 2021 will be approved,” Issa told Esta Media Network.
“What is written in the loan law will not affect the 320 billion dinars,” he said, referring to the fiscal deficit financing law, approved by the Iraqi Council of Representatives on Thursday without Kurds’ consent.
The law 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.
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.
The federal government has transferred 320 billion Iraqi dinars to the Kurdistan Region twice since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi told Kurdish Premier Masrour Barzani in a phone call in August that Baghdad would send the amount to Erbil as payment for the Region’s public servants until the end of the year.
