SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi Minister of Finance, Taif Sami, has informed Kurdistan Region officials that Baghdad will release only 750 billion dnars for April salaries of civil servants—on the condition that the Region returns 50 billion dinars in non-oil revenues to the federal treasury, a senior source in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Finance told Zoom News.
According to the source, the minister cited the Region’s failure to fully comply with terms of a prior Erbil-Baghdad agreement signed earlier this year. While the KRG says it needs 950 billion dinars monthly to pay its public sector employees, the finance minister reportedly stressed that any shortfall should be covered by the Region itself.
This financial standoff comes as frustration grows among the Region’s civil servants, who have endured such delays for over a decade.
On Wednesday, Aziz Ahmad, Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, said that “it’s been 41 days since Baghdad last paid the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” its civil servants’ salaries, asserting that the KRG has “fulfilled all of its obligations.”
It’s been 41 days since Baghdad last paid the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The KRG has fulfilled all of its obligations.
— Aziz Ahmad (@azizkahmad) May 7, 2025
Tensions over revenue-sharing and salary delays have repeatedly strained relations between the federal and regional governments, with public employees and security personnel often caught in the middle.