Iraqi Parliamentary Finance: Fate of the budget became unknown after new disagreements emerged

Economy 10:45 AM - 2021-03-29

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On Sunday, the Iraqi Council of Representatives failed again to hold its voting session on the draft federal budget bill for 2021.

 

MP Shirwan Mirza, a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee and member of the PUK bloc in the Iraqi Parliament revealed to PUKmedia that new differences have emerged between the parliamentary blocs which caused the delay of the voting session on the federal budget for 2021.

 

"Some blocs submitted new demands in addition to determining the exchange rate of the dollar and failed to reach an agreement between them," MP Shirwan said, indicating that the share of the Kurdistan Region has nothing to do with postponing the session.

 

Regarding setting a new date for voting on the budget, MP Shirwan Mirza said: "There is no new date for voting on the budget, and the meetings ended yesterday without setting any new date."

 

He pointed out that the fate of the federal budget bill for 2021 has become unknown due to the new disputes that have emerged between the parliamentary blocs.

 

The Iraqi Parliament has postponed the budget session several times due to the failure of Iraqi parties to reach an agreement.

 

Regarding the share of the Kurdistan Region, it does not seem to be a problem as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has reached an agreement with the Iraqi government.

 

Article 11 of the draft budget law regarding the Kurdistan Region’s share was voted on by the Finance Committee on Sunday and according to the text of the article, the Kurdistan Region will send revenues of 250 thousand barrels of oil per day to Iraq's SOMO Oil Company.

 

According to the agreement, If the Kurdistan Region does not send financial revenues, Baghdad is not obligated to send any money to the region.

 

The KRG's delegation, headed Qubad Talabani, has made several visits to the Iraqi capital Baghdad to reach an agreement with the federal government on the Kurdistan Region's share in the Iraqi budget bill and resolve the outstanding issues between the two sides.

 

Erbil has been heavily reliant on its federal budget share from Baghdad to pay its civil servants and undertake service projects since 2003. In 2014, Baghdad stopped sending the funds fully, and on time after oil prices fell, war broke out with the Islamic State (ISIS), and relations between the federal and regional governments soured over Erbil’s decision to export its oil independently.

 

 

 

PUKmedia