KRG Council of Ministers Holds First 2026 Meeting, Presses Baghdad on Salary Payments and Budget Rights
The council said there is no legal or constitutional basis for withholding these payments, emphasizing that salaries are a lawful right of Kurdistan Region public employees.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Council of Ministers held its first meeting of the new year on Tuesday, chaired by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, with discussions centered on the Kurdistan Region’s financial situation and outstanding salary payments.
According to an official statement from the KRG, the meeting focused on financial planning for 2026 and ongoing efforts to secure the payment of salary arrears and financial entitlements owed to the Kurdistan Region by Iraq’s federal Ministry of Finance.
KRG Minister of Finance and Economy Awat Sheikh Janab presented a detailed report outlining revenues and expenditures for the 2025 fiscal year, as well as forecasts and preparations for the 2026 budget.
The Council of Ministers stressed that the federal government must release the salaries for November and December 2025, in addition to the unpaid salaries from 2023 and 2024. The council said there is no legal or constitutional basis for withholding these payments, emphasizing that salaries are a lawful right of Kurdistan Region public employees.
The council also highlighted the Kurdistan Region’s compliance with the tripartite oil export agreement, noting that the KRG has delivered an average of 220,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO). The oil has been sold on international markets, with revenues recorded in cash in the Federal Treasury’s monthly revised balance sheets.
The ministers further insisted that the Kurdistan Region’s budget must be formally included in the next federal budget law, stressing that the Ministry of Finance is constitutionally obligated to submit and recognize the region’s budget as part of the federal system.
In a separate agenda item, the council reviewed progress on the trilateral oil export agreement, which the KRG has implemented over the final three months of 2025. The council reaffirmed its commitment to continuing and renewing the agreement.
Minister of Natural Resources Kamal Mohammad presented key data on oil export volumes and revenues generated from sales in the Kurdistan Region.
The Council of Ministers directed the oil and budget negotiating delegation in Baghdad to establish a clear constitutional, legal, and financial framework for reorganizing the Kurdistan Region's budget and financial entitlements in accordance with its constitutional rights and authorities. Iraqi ministers were also urged to coordinate with the federal government to ensure the prompt delivery of salaries and benefits owed to public employees in the Kurdistan Region.
The Ministries of Finance and Economy, Natural Resources, and the negotiating delegation were tasked with fulfilling their responsibilities and removing any grounds for further delays by the federal government in disbursing the Kurdistan Region’s financial entitlements.