SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iraqi government will transfer 320 billion Iraqi dinars to the Kurdistan Region next week as payment for the Region’s public servants, a Kurdish lawmaker said on Monday.
Member of Iraqi Council of Representatives Sarkawt Shamsadin told Esta Media Network that the federal government would send the Region’s share on Sunday (November 29).
“The distribution of salaries of all the Iraqi ministries will be completed on Thursday, and the Region’s share which is 320 billion dinars will be sent on Sunday,” Shamsadin said.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative in Baghdad Faris Issa said on Nov. 16 that the federal government would keep sending the Region’s share.
Regarding a loan law passed by the Iraqi parliament, Issa told Esta Media Network that the law would not affect an agreement reached between Erbil and Baghdad in September to transfer 320 billion dinars to the Region as payment for the Kurdish employees.
“What is written in the loan law will not affect the 320 billion dinars,” he said, referring to the fiscal deficit financing law, adopted by the Iraqi Council of Representatives on Nov. 12 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 parliament’s session on Nov. 12 due to their concern about the Kurdistan Region’s share set in the draft fiscal deficit financing law.
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.
