On the eve of the Iraqi parliament’s vote on the draft financial budget, the Kurdistan Regional Government announced its rejection of amendments to some clauses introduced on Thursday by the Finance Committee.
In a statement, the Kurdistan Regional Government said that the changes made by the members of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament were “unconstitutional,” adding that the region “will not accept them.”
According to the statement, the amendments “clearly contradict the agreement signed between the regional government and the federal state, and constitute a violation of the principles of the state administration government agreement and the essence of the ministerial policy statement,” which was approved by Parliament.
The statement continued: “We, in the regional government, will not accept this injustice and violation against the people of Kurdistan at all, and we will not abide by any other decision outside the scope of the agreement signed with the government of Mr. Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government was referring to an agreement between Erbil and Baghdad that sets a framework for the resumption of crude oil flows from the region in northern Iraq via Turkey, according to Reuters.
On Thursday, the media department in the Iraqi parliament reported that the Finance Committee, headed by Atwan Al-Atwani, held an “important meeting regarding the Federal General Budget Law for the fiscal years 2023-2024-2025 and the amendment of some paragraphs.”
The Committee voted on a clause obliging the Kurdistan Region to pay back 10 percent of the cuts made to the salaries of public sector employees on a monthly basis.
The Kurdistan Regional Government made significant salary cuts to its public sector employees in 2014, after its budget share was cut by Baghdad and oil prices dropped.
The Finance Committee also made some amendments to Articles 13 and 14, pertaining to the production and marketing of oil in the Kurdistan region.
