MESOPOTAMIA NEWS SOUTH KURDISTAN / IRAQBaghdad puts KRG budget transfer in the crosshairs
As Iraq descends further into financial crisis, the federal Cabinet and Parliament signal rising opposition to the KRG’s monthly budget payments.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi (right) meets with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Baghdad on July 16, 2019. (Source: KRG media office)
By Staff of Iraq Oil Report – Published Thursday, April 23rd, 2020
BAGHDAD/ERBIL – Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region faces new levels of financial uncertainty, as prominent voices in both the federal Cabinet and Parliament advocate for an end to monthly budget transfers.
In an April 1 letter, the general secretariat of the Council of Ministers called on the Finance Ministry to stop making monthly payments of 453 billion Iraqi dinars (about $384 million) to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) because the KRG has not shared its oil production
with the federal government as outlined in Iraq’s most recent budget law, according to three members of Parliament who saw the letter.