KRG Council of Ministers to discuss amending Iraq’s budget, kurdish hydrocarbon dossier

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers is set to discuss several topics in its weekly session on Wednesday, including amending the Iraqi budget law as well as the Kurdish hydrocarbon dossier.

Prime Minister Masrour Barzani will chair the regular session in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani in Erbil, a government statement read.

At the beginning of the meeting, the ministers will discuss two dossiers related to the Kurdistan Region: the amendment of the Iraqi federal three-year budget as well as the Region’s oil and gas, per the meeting’s agenda.

Erbil has previously called for amending the budget law that was adopted in June this year due to persistent issues in payment transfers to the Kurdistan Region as its financial entitlement.

However, the Kurdish region’s share in the budget has been set as 12 percent, the semi-autonomous region has not received its share since the three-year budget’s approval in June. Instead, Baghdad has paid Erbil’s financial entitlements in loans until September.

The amendments are expected to be made in February next year.

The ministers will also discuss instructions on foreign workers' bills as well as the implementation of a decree regarding the beneficiaries of salaries of martyrs and Anfal victims, per the press release. 

The KRG has officially requested Baghdad to send additional funds to cover the remaining months of the year until the amendment of the budget law.

The 700 billion IQD ($538 million) is supposed to be transferred monthly to the Kurdistan Region per an agreement between the two governments.