SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Parliament’s Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami said the issue between Erbil and Baghdad is on article 11 of the draft federal budget law, which is about oil exports in the Region.
Hawrami told reporters that the Kurdistan Region supports the federal budget bill approved by the Iraqi Council of Ministers, but there are efforts in the Iraqi parliament to make changes in the draft law.
“There is no problem between the Region’s delegation and the Iraqi parliament on Article 10 of the federal budget bill,” said Hawrami.
“But the problem is with Article 11, which is specific to the issue of handing over oil [to Baghdad],” he added, saying the article demands Erbil and Baghdad to finalize entitlements for 2004-2020.
The article also commits the Kurdistan Region to hand over non-oil revenue and 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to Baghdad, Hawrami noted.
State-run newspaper al-Sabah reported on Tuesday that 113 members of Iraqi parliament had called for amendments to the draft federal budget law for fiscal year 2021.
The lawmakers demand an increase of the amount of oil that the Kurdistan Region is required to hand over to Baghdad from 250,000 bpd to 460,000.
Kurdish officials have expressed readiness to export 250,000 bpd through Baghdad to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani who led a high-level delegation to Baghdad said in December that Erbil and Baghdad had reached an agreement over the 2021 federal budget bill.
The draft budget law commits the Kurdistan Region to export 250,000 bpd through Baghdad in exchange for the Region’s share of the federal budget, which is set at 12.67%.
A KRG delegation led by Talabani met with members of Iraqi parliament’s committee of finance in Baghdad on Monday night to discuss the Region’s financial entitlements and share of the federal budget.
Spokesman of the KRG deputy premier Samir Hawrami said both sides had discussed oil revenue and expenditures in detail.
“All the necessary data and information of the Kurdistan Region were presented to the Iraqi parliament’s committee of finance,” Hawrami told Esta Media Network.
“Meetings will continue so as to fix the Dec. 12 agreement between the KRG and the federal government in the federal budget for 2021,” he said.
Coordinator of Iraqi parliament’s committee of finance Ahmed Safar said the delegation had presented data and information about the Region’s oil and non-oil revenues to the committee during the meeting.
“The delegation has also showed readiness to help with the federal government resolve issues in root,” Safar told Esta Media Network.
Mhasin Hamdoun, member of the finance committee in the Iraqi parliament, said the meeting was “good and positive”, predicting that the future talks would be positive as well.
“There was no disagreement over the Region’s share, and the Kurdistan Region’s revenues were discussed during the meeting,” she told Esta Media Network.
