SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — In a historic meeting, finance ministers from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government held discussions with the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament, resulting in a positive development regarding the budget bill and civil servants’ salaries in the Kurdistan Region.
KRG Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab stated that they agreed to establish a “planned” budget for the Kurdistan Region. During a joint press conference, head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Atwan Atwani, asserted that certain articles in the budget law could be amended.
The KRG delegation presented concerns about oil revenues, non-oil revenues, border crossings, the number of salaried employees, and extraction fees charged by oil companies.
The KRG delegation emphasized two key demands: keeping salaries of KRG employees out of political conflicts and separating salaries from actual expenditures of the Iraqi government. This comes as the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants have not been paid their August and September salaries.
Minister Janab noted a consensus on resolving issues affecting salaried employees in the Kurdistan Region, indicating no obstacles to disburse the 700 billion dinars for civil servants’ payments by the Iraqi Finance Minister.
