BAGHDAD, Iraq — The draft of Iraq’s 2018 budget has been sent to parliament for a reading, and according a parliamentarian in the financial committee, the share of Kurdistan Region has been slashed from its constitutional entitlement to 12.6 percent. Majida al-Tamimi, member of the parliamentary financial committee said on Thursday that the draft has gone to parliament for the second time and Kurdistan Region’s share stays at 12.6 percent. The Iraqi cabinet of ministers slashed the share from 17 percent as stipulated in the constitution to 12.6 earlier this month though the government decided to revise it before submitting it to the legislature. Kurdish leaders in Erbil have vehemently opposed this move and describe the decrease in Erbil’s share as a blatant violation of the constitution. Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in his weekly press briefing last week that taking back the budget draft to the cabinet for a revision was a positive step which he hoped would undo “the injustice done to the people of the Kurdistan Region,” The MP al-Tamimi said however that the draft has now been sent back to parliament without any changes to the Kurdish share and on Saturday members of the house will do their reading of it. According to al-Tamimi, in next year’s budget the government docks civil servant salaries by 3.8 percent and a barrel of oil has been set at $46.
