KRG Delegation to Visit Baghdad for 2027 Budget Share Talks

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — A high-level Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation is scheduled to visit Baghdad on Oct. 4, to hold talks with Iraq’s Ministry of Finance on the Kurdistan Region’s share and financial entitlements in the 2027 federal budget, Kurdistan24 has learned.

The delegation will include Omed Sabah, President of the KRG Council of Ministers’ Diwan, Amanj Rahim, Secretary of the Council of Ministers, and several other senior officials from the Kurdistan Region, according to information obtained by Kurdistan24.

The visit will focus on discussing the Region’s share in the 2027 federal budget and securing the KRG’s demands and financial entitlements in the draft budget law, which has advanced to Iraq’s Council of Ministers following its preparation by the federal Finance Ministry.

The planned talks come as Erbil and Baghdad continue negotiations over several longstanding financial issues, including the Kurdistan Region’s budget allocation, public-sector salaries, oil and non-oil revenues, investment spending, and other constitutional and financial entitlements.

The KRG has previously submitted a detailed proposal for its requirements in the 2027 federal budget, covering full salary allocations for civil and military employees and retirees, Peshmerga financial entitlements, healthcare and medicine funding, investment projects, and the conversion of KRG contract employees to permanent positions.

The proposal also called for the restoration of employee promotion entitlements and the settlement of outstanding financial obligations.

The Kurdistan Region has also challenged the population percentage being considered for calculating its federal budget allocation.

The KRG Council of Ministers said in September that the Region’s share should reflect the official results of the 2024 population census, which it put at 14.14 percent, while recent reporting on the federal draft has indicated that Baghdad has used a lower percentage in the current version.

The disagreement over the calculation of the Region’s share has become one of the main outstanding issues in the 2027 budget negotiations.

The latest visit follows earlier meetings between KRG representatives and Iraq’s Finance and Planning ministries in Baghdad.

A KRG delegation led by Omed Sabah held talks with federal officials in September on the draft 2027 budget, including investment allocations, operating expenditures and mechanisms for securing the Region’s financial share.

Iraq’s Ministry of Planning said the sides also discussed ways to secure the Kurdistan Region’s allocation in next year’s budget.

Iraq’s 2027 budget is being prepared after the country operated throughout 2026 without a new federal budget law, relying instead on a temporary one-twelfth spending mechanism based on previous allocations.

The federal government has said the new budget will place greater emphasis on increasing non-oil revenues and fiscal discipline, while the draft is expected to proceed from the Council of Ministers to parliament for consideration.

For Erbil, securing the Region’s financial entitlements in the 2027 budget remains closely linked to broader negotiations with Baghdad over the constitutional division of revenues and expenditures.

The KRG has maintained that the Region’s public-sector salaries and other financial rights should not be subject to political disputes, while Baghdad and Erbil continue to negotiate the mechanisms governing oil revenues, budget allocations and other financial obligations.