Baghdad is waiting for the Kurdistan Region to answer 13 questions to resolve the budget dispute

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Shafaq News / Kurdistan Parliament member, from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc, Hifidar Ahmed, announced on Friday that the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament of the regional government delegation delivered 13 questions, most notably the sale of crude oil, and the financial revenues generated from it, with the aim of stabilizing Kurdistan’s share in the budget for 2021.

Ahmed said in a post today, that the Kurdistan Regional Government delegation ended its third visit to Baghdad with the aim of stabilizing the region’s share in the general budget, although he did not meet with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, explaining that the first visit reached an agreement with the federal government to hand over 250 A thousand barrels of crude oil per day in exchange for Baghdad granting 12.67% of the budget to Kurdistan after deducting sovereign and governance expenditures, and this is what has been confirmed in the draft general budget law.

He noted that Baghdad informed the Kurdistan Region recently and publicly that the issue of delivering (250 thousand barrels of crude oil per day to SOMO) has ended, and that the region has two options, the first of which is to deliver all of Kurdistan’s oil to Baghdad, and the second is to hand over all the financial revenues generated from the sale of oil .

Ahmed continued by saying that on the second visit of the regional government delegation to Baghdad, and when it met with the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, the latter posed 13 questions to the delegation and asked it to answer them, revealing 9 questions that are the most prominent, namely:

1- Does the Kurdistan Regional Government delegation have the authority to make decisions?
2-How much is the internal revenue of the Kurdistan Region?
3- What is the price that the region adopts for selling its oil?
4- The mechanism followed by the Kurdistan Region in concluding oil contracts?
5- What are the loan amounts owed by the region? Who are the bodies that granted these loans?
6- Does the Financial Supervision Bureau have a role in supervising and following up oil contracts?
7- Does Kurdistan Region have its own budget?
8- If the Kurdistan Region does not have a budget, what is the mechanism used for disbursing its revenues?
9-How many employees, retirees, and those who earn salaries in general in the Kurdistan Region?

The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Hoshyar Zebari, confirmed on Thursday that the constitution does not allow the Iraqi parliament to manipulate the federal financial budget or make a change to its formula.

Zebari said, “There must be an end to parliament, because our system is a single, independent and fully sovereign federal state. The system of government is republican, representative (parliamentary), and democratic, and this constitution guarantees the unity of Iraq.

He continued by saying, “The representatives cannot tamper with the budget on their own whim through their political and sectarian affiliations, and justice and the rights of all components must be fulfilled without exclusionary and racist policies if we want to build a civil and just state based on citizenship and participation, and stop you playing on the strings of sectarianism and racism.” Hate and exclusion. ”

The governments of Baghdad and Erbil reached an agreement to hand over the region’s revenues of 250 thousand barrels per day and half of the other revenues from border crossings and others, in exchange for a share estimated at 12.6 percent of the budget in addition to the payment of the salaries of the Peshmerga forces.

The agreement was included in the draft budget approved by the Iraqi government and sent to Parliament for approval, but the regional government delegation returned to Baghdad again to persuade the political blocs in Parliament to pass the region’s share.

The regional government says it exports 250 thousand barrels per day of oil produced from its fields, and the remainder goes to domestic consumption, which makes it unable to meet the new demands of the Shiite blocs, which could lead to the collapse of the talks.

The management of oil wealth and the distribution of its revenues are among the most prominent controversial issues pending between Baghdad and Erbil for many years. Each party accuses the other of violating the constitution.


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