Kurdistan Finance Ministry: Promised salary funds from Baghdad face new implementation hurdles
Shafaq News/ The Ministry of Finance and Economy in the Kurdistan Region announced, on Thursday, that the federal government is not ready to send the region's financial entitlements.
In a statement, the ministry said, "In recent months, the Ministry of Finance has resolved all obstacles and technical issues related to the payroll list, and the ministry’s technical teams have maintained constant contact with the technical team of the Iraqi Ministry of Finance."
Regarding the talks between the Kurdish and the Iraqi ministries of finance, the statement revealed that in the recent meeting between the delegations held in Baghdad, the Iraqi Minister of Finance promised to finalize the funding for December and allocate the required amount for November.
The ministry further stated that while the budget law includes several allocations that legally allow the Kurdish government to make transfers to cover salary deficits, new problems have emerged in implementing this provision.
“This comes despite multiple decisions to allocate 430 billion IQD (approximately $328 million) to address the salary shortfall for the last three months of the year,” the statement concluded.
The salary issue in the Kurdistan Region has remained unresolved for years due to ongoing disputes with the federal government. Each year, the matter resurfaces during the approval of the federal budget, which ties the Region’s share to conditions, particularly the transfer of oil revenues. Over the past two years, following the suspension of the Region's oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, the federal government has been providing salaries as "loans."
In February, the Federal Supreme Court directed Baghdad to pay the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s employees directly, by passing the Kurdistan Regional Government, after months of salary delays.
In Parliament, the Iraqi PM emphasized that the salary issue is not political but noted that the Kurdistan Region has failed to meet any of the clauses in the Budget Law. He further stated that no additional transfers would be made for the Region’s salaries and confirmed that only 760 billion dinars (approximately 608 million USD) would be disbursed, corresponding to the Region’s fixed share of 12.67%.
