Iraqi parliament approved budget bill for 2016

Iraqi parliament approved the budget bill for 2016 worth 106 trillion IQD ($91 billion).

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – Iraqi parliament approved the budget bill for 2016 worth 106 trillion IQD ($91 billion). The seventeen percent of KRG's share will remain the same. 

Faris Brifkani, a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament, told K 24 that the Kurdistan Region's seventeen percent share in Iraq's budget for 2016 was approved, despite attempts by the State of Law Coalition MPs to reduce the region's proportion to thirteen percent.

Speaking to K 24, an Iraqi Parliament Finance Committee member, Ahmed Haji Rashid said, "We have been facing all the obstacles created by some MPs especially the State of Law Coalition MPs to reduce the Kurdistan Region's share in the 2016 budget." 

"It is unfortunate that out of 111 MPs who collected signatures in favor of reducing Kurdistan Region's proportion in the budget to thirteen percent, only 18 MPs voted," an Iraqi parliament member, Hanan al-Fatlawi, head of Irada (Will) Movement MP said. 

The KRG claims that Baghdad has refused to respect the national budget share of Kurdistan over the last two years. The Kurdistan Region’s budget was cut off twice since the beginning of 2014—once by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and again by current Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi in 2015.