KRG Report: Region Funded 65 Trillion Dinars Of Iraq’s Sovereign Spending And Got Nothing Back

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kurdistan Region contributed more than 65 trillion Iraqi dinars to Iraq’s sovereign expenditures over the past 12 years and has received no money from the sovereign budget, according to a new analytical report from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Media and Information, prepared with the Ministry of Finance and Economy. The report, dated November 7 and circulated on Monday, covers the federal budget laws from 2014 to 2025 and argues that the Region’s financial crisis resulted from a systematic mechanism that cut its entitlements through unfair sovereign deductions and failure to follow the budget laws.

The report says Iraq’s total budgets over the 12 years reached about 1,767 trillion dinars, and that the Region’s share before sovereign deductions was more than 245 trillion dinars. Baghdad actually sent about 41 trillion dinars, which covered salaries for only 46 of the 144 months, nearly 4 years, and left about 8 years of salaries unpaid, it says. It adds that this pushed the KRG to export oil directly to pay citizens’ living costs. Since 2015, the report says, Baghdad has tied the Region’s share to an “actual expenditure” condition without its consent and dealt with it only through salaries.

The yearly figures show wide swings. In 2014, 2.28 trillion dinars was sent out of the Region’s net share of 20 trillion, for three months of salaries. In 2016 and 2017, when the Region’s net shares were 13.1 trillion and 11.6 trillion, nothing was sent. The most came in 2024, when 10 trillion dinars was sent, for 11 months, and in 2025, when 9.59 trillion was sent, for 10 months. The report says the Region’s official share was 17 percent from 2014 to 2017 and was cut to 12.67 percent from 2018 without a legal basis.

The report focuses on sovereign expenditures, which it says grew from 10 items to 100 since 2015. It says more than 65 trillion dinars of the Region’s share was deducted over 12 years as sovereign spending, more than the entire 41 trillion sent, without the Region or its Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs benefiting from that spending or from Iraq’s debts. In the three-year 2023-2025 budget, sovereign spending was 142.3 trillion dinars, or 23 percent of the total. Baghdad’s method deducts 12.67 percent of that, or 18.1 trillion dinars, while the KRG says its contribution should be based on its general share before deduction, 9.9 trillion dinars. The report says Baghdad deducts nearly twice the Region’s share, a loss of 8.2 trillion dinars over the three years, or 2.7 trillion a year.

The report also cites the 2024 census, which it says puts the Region’s population at 14.14 percent of Iraq’s, and says the draft 2027 budget ignores it and cuts the Region’s share to 12.70 percent. The KRG has asked for 14.14 percent, while Baghdad has proposed 12.67 percent with a condition that the Region export 450,000 barrels of oil a day, and the Iraqi cabinet is due to take up the draft on Tuesday. Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in Baghdad on Monday, and the two agreed to work out ways to settle disputes under the constitution.