SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Council of Representatives postponed a session scheduled for Saturday to vote on the draft federal budget law to next week.
The parliament scheduled to hold a session on Saturday was delayed to March 27 after disagreements on the federal budget bill for 2021.
Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi parliament Bashir Hadad said earlier that there were “some new opinions” about the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget.
“We cannot accept that,” Hadad told reporters in Baghdad, saying the agreement between the Region and Baghdad had been added to the budget bill.
“Kurds have no problem. The agreement between the Region’s delegation and Shias has not been annulled. It was signed and stamped by the committee of finance,” he added.
The Kurdistan Region’s delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani reached a deal with Shia parties on Friday night on the Region’s share of the federal budget.
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 send names and information about civil and military employees to the Iraqi ministry of finance and economy.
*This story was updated at 07:44 p.m. EBL time
