ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —The KRG Supreme Economic and Financial Committee is meeting on Wednesday and the Council of Ministers will convene afterward, with the aim of devising a new system for salaries for KRG’s employees.
The Supreme Economic and Financial Committee is convening, Rudaw correspondent Sanger Abdulrahman reported from the capital.
The meeting is supervised by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani; thereafter, the Council of Ministers will meet.
Rudaw has learned that the base salary reductions will be limited 10-30 percent.
This new system, however, does not encompass special positions, such as ministers, parliamentarians, the prime minister and other high-ranking officials who will still have their salaries cut according to the previous system.
The unpopular system was implemented in early 2016 after Baghdad stopped sending the Kurdistan Region the 17 percent share of the federal budget.
The government is expected to decide on a new mechanism for the distribution of salaries based on the total amount it receives from Baghdad (318 billion dinars), from oil revenues (445 billion dinars), and from domestic revenue (148 billion dinars), totaling about 910 billion Iraqi dinars.
However, this total figure does not cover other costs like remittances to energy companies, operational and maintenance costs, and other sectors and programs.
The Kurdistan Region needs 900 billion Iraqi dinars ($759.4 million) to pay its 1.2 million public servants in full and on time, the KRG finance ministry has stated.
Kurdistan’s parliament passed radical reforms on February 27 which could save 100-120 billion dinars. The law commits the government to undertake radical reforms to the payroll system and pension fund for top earners.
The meeting today comes as some state employees have continued their anti-government protests in a number of Kurdish cities on Wednesday including in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Halabja.
"People of the castle and the minaret [in Erbil], are fed up with the government," the protesters in Halabja shouted to express their solidarity with the gatherings in the capital that have continued for the fourth day in a row.
A number of people have been arrested, while others injured since some violent clashes between the protesters and members of the security forces in Erbil and Duhok provinces began on March 19.
A senior member of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), an opposition party, told Rudaw on Tuesday that more than 50 of their party members were arrested in the two provinces.
Dindar Zebari, the head of KRG international advocacy, confirmed that the authorities have arrested some who were charged with inciting violence.
This is a developing story... Last updated at 12:45 p.m.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment