Iraq’s Parliament Finance Committee Suspended Due to Budget Bill Disagreement
Negotiations for Iraq’s 2023 budget have hit a roadblock as the parliament’s deputy speaker has decided to postpone discussions. This decision comes after concerns were raised about legal irregularities and the bypassing of a joint agreement between the Iraqi federal government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), leading to the suspension of the finance committee.
Jamal Kochar, a lawmaker representing the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) bloc in the Iraqi parliament and a member of the finance committee, informed The New Arab in a telephone interview that their committee has been temporarily suspended. This action was taken in accordance with a directive from the deputy speaker of Iraq’s parliament. The suspension stems from the committee exceeding the legal limit of 23 members, with the current count at 24.
Negotiations on Iraq’s 2023 budget bill remain at a standstill at the finance committee, awaiting a crucial political agreement between the Iraqi government and the KRG. Until this agreement is reached, progress on the budget bill will be on hold.
The finance committee on Saturday announced some amendments to the budget bill, including a condition that the Kurdish region must first deliver 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the federal authorities, along with non-oil revenues, before it can receive a share of nearly 12 per cent from the federal budget.
Another amendment states that the KRG should allocate 10 per cent of its share from the federal budget to pay off salary cuts to its public sector employees. Furthermore, the changes stipulate that Kurdish oil revenues should be deposited “in an account belonging to the Iraqi Finance Ministry, at the Iraqi Central Bank”, instead of an international bank account as previously agreed.
The federal government in mid-March sent the draft three-year budget to parliament. The Iraqi federal government and the KRG early in April signed an agreement on resuming oil exports to Turkey, Iraq’s draft budget law and fresh discussions on a new federal oil and gas law.
Masrour Barzani, the KRG Prime Minister from the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Saturday refused the amendments by the finance committee. Shakhawan Abduallh, deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament from the KDP, has ordered the suspension of the finance committee, citing legal irregularities in the number of the committee’s members.
Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan region as well as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a main ruling part and rival to the KDP, have supported the alterations by the finance committee.
Last week, lawmakers from the KDP and the PUK clashed in the Kurdistan region’s parliament in Erbil over the reactivation of the KRG’s electoral commission, after the two rival factions disagreed on renewing the mandate of the commission in order to supervise parliamentary elections scheduled for 18 November.
Sudani, from the Shia community, was chosen to form the new government on 13 October following months of infighting between pro-Iran factions and parties loyal to Iraqi nationalist Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
He has the backing of the Coalition for the Administration of the State, which is an alliance of powerful pro-Iran Shia factions, Sunni factions led by al-Halbusi and two key Kurdish parties, the KDP and the PUK.
The Coalition for the Administration of the State is expected to meet late on Monday to discuss the Kurdistan region’s share and passing the budget bill in the parliament.
Ankara stopped handling 450,000 bpd of exports from Iraq’s north on March 25 after an international tribunal ruled in a nine-year-old dispute that Baghdad was right to insist on overseeing all Iraqi oil exports.
The tribunal run by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Turkey to pay Baghdad damages of US$1.5 billion for allowing the KRG to export oil between 2014 and 2018 without the Iraqi government’s consent.
The KRG cut nearly 25 per cent of the salaries of its public sector in 2014, when oil prices plummeted and Kurdish fighters were battling the Islamic State group. In 2016, the KRG halted pay rises to its employees without approval from the region’s parliament.
