ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has demanded that its share of Iraq’s 2027 federal budget reflect the results of the 2025 census, a well-placed source at the regional finance ministry told Rudaw English on Thursday, as talks with Baghdad resume.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on discussing the matter with the media, said a recent visit by a KRG delegation to Baghdad had set “the ground” for a month of “extensive discussions” on the budget bill.
The KRG has demanded “14.1 percent of the national budget based on last year’s census,” the source said, as the Iraqi government makes headway in preparing the 2027 budget bill for submission to parliament before the end of the year.
“We are heading to a month of extensive discussions with Baghdad,” the source said, noting that the talks would comprehensively address the KRG’s needs and responsibilities.
Speaking about Baghdad’s plan to shift from traditional line-item budgeting toward program-and-performance-based budgeting (PBB), the source said the new system was still in the pilot stage, with federal authorities testing it in Diwaniya and Salahadin provinces before applying it nationwide.
“It has nothing to do with KRG’s budget share,” he said.
The Iraqi finance ministry began working on the budget law in June, with the draft scheduled to be submitted to parliament in mid-October.
A senior KRG delegation comprising the ministers of finance and natural resources arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks.
In a meeting with Iraqi Finance Minister Falih al-Sari, the delegation “stressed the need to fairly secure the Kurdistan Region’s share and entitlements based on the constitution and the law,” the KRG said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sari vowed to “deal fairly with the Kurdistan Region’s rights and financial entitlements,” the statement added.
The Kurdish delegation also met officials at the Iraqi planning ministry, where it pointed to Erbil’s “right to receive its share of international loans, aid, and grants” as well as allocations for “regional and provincial development projects and petrodollar funds.”
Erbil has faced disputes with Baghdad over its share of federal budgets since 2014, when disagreements over the KRG’s independent oil exports to Turkey developed into a prolonged political and financial crisis.
The disputes have contributed to delayed and inconsistent salary payments for public sector employees in the Kurdistan Region, as well as suspended promotions and deductions from pension savings.
Baghdad passed a three-year federal budget law in 2022. Under previous federal budget arrangements, the KRG’s share was set at roughly 12.5 percent after sovereign expenditures, including defense and foreign affairs, were deducted.
