SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Council of Representatives is scheduled to hold a session on Saturday to vote on the draft federal budget law, after Kurds and Shia parties reached an agreement on the Region’s share of the budget.
Speaker of the Iraqi parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi postponed the session to Saturday after the committee of finance completed its meeting on the budget bill last night.
The parliament’s committee of finance met to add terms of the agreement between the Kurdistan Region’s delegation and Shia parties on the Region’s share of the federal budget.
The committee voted to approve the agreement during its meeting late on Friday.
Samir Hawrami, spokesman of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, said the Iraqi parliament would vote on the terms of the agreement alongside the other terms of the budget bill.
According to the new agreement, first section of article 11 of the budget says the entitlements of the Kurdistan Region and the federal government between 2014 and 2020 should be settled.
The second section of Article 11 includes five points. First point estimates the amount of oil production at the Kurdistan Region’s oilfields at 460,000 barrel per day (bpd). The Kurdistan Region is committed to export no less than 250,000 barrels through SOMO after costs of production, transfers, local usage, and petrodollars are taken out from the 460,000 bpd.
The second point says the first point will be implemented in coordination between the Iraqi oil minister and the Kurdistan Region’s ministry of natural resources.
The third point commits the Kurdistan Region to hand over non-oil revenue to the federal government in accordance with the financial management law.
In the fourth point, the KRG is obliged to repay loans of the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) through annual installments, starting from 2021.
The last point abides the federal government by paying the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements when the second point of this article is implemented.
The third section of article 11 commits the KRG to pay salaries of its public sectors.
Two more articles are added to the draft budget law, committing the KRG to sent names and information about civil and military employees to the Iraqi ministry of finance and economy.
