ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is set to visit Baghdad on Sunday to discuss issues regarding the implementation of the recently-passed federal budget bill after Erbil appealed several articles regarding its share.
Sipan Sherwani, a Kurdish lawmaker of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the Iraqi parliament’s economy and investment committee, told Rudaw that a delegation including the Kurdistan Region’s finance minister and numerous ministerial officials will visit Baghdad “to discuss how to implement the details of the budget and the commitments of both sides and the Kurdistan Region’s entitlements.”
The KRG has appealed several points in the federal budget law relating to the Kurdistan Region, including Articles 11, 12, and 13, which detail the Region’s share and the management of its oil, claiming they were drafted “unlawfully and unconstitutionally.”
According to Sherwani, the Kurdish delegation “will meet with a number of relevant ministries,” including “the finance and oil ministries.”
Iraq passed its highly-contentious federal budget in June after months of discussions. The budget law obliges the KRG to sell 400,000 barrels of crude oil through Iraq’s national oil marketing body and if the suspension of exports continues, Iraq will take Kurdish oil for its internal use.
Turkey stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline after a Paris arbitration court on March 23 ruled in favor of Baghdad, saying Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement when it allowed the Kurdistan Region to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
The Region’s oil exports have yet to resume and the federal budget is expected to be implemented later this month. The KRG, which heavily relies on oil revenues, now is reliant on local income and money sent by Baghdad as debt to pay its civil servants.
On Saturday, MP Khalid Doski told Rudaw that Erbil’s appeal will not affect the flow of federal funds to Erbil for the Region’s budget and salaries.
The details of the appeal as well as its application have yet to be confirmed.
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