Despite a Kurdish boycott, the Iraqi parliament approved on Saturday a long-delayed budget.
This will be Iraq’s first budget since the country declared its victory against the ISIS terrorist group in 2017 after a three-year battle.
The Kurds boycotted the parliament session in protest against budget cuts against the semi-autonomous region.
Kurdish MP Majed Shankali told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The Kurdish lawmakers from all blocs and parties, regardless of their affiliations, performed their duties in regards to their position on the budget.”
“They completely reject it and did not take part in any of the phases that preceded its approval because the rights of the Kurdish people have been ignored,” he added.
“The stance from the political process is not in our hands, but in the hands of the Kurdish political leaderships,” he remarked.
The budget of 104 trillion Iraqi dinars ($88 billion) is based on projected oil exports of 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) at a price of $46, a copy of the final bill showed.
It envisions government revenues of 91.64 trillion dinars ($77.6 billion) with a deficit of 12.5 trillion dinars ($10.58 billion).
Parliament was meant to pass the budget before the start of the 2018 financial year in January but all three main blocs, Shi’ite Arabs, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds, had serious issues with the government’s proposal.
“We boycotted the vote and there are proposals for Kurdistan to withdraw from the entire political process in Iraq over the unfair treatment we have received,” said Kurdish MP Ashwaq Jaff.
The budget cut the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) share from the 17 percent the region has traditionally received since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
It did not specify a percentage to be allocated to the KRG, instead stipulating it would receive funds proportional to its share of the population.
In a previous draft the KRG portion was set at 12.67 percent, which is how much of Iraq’s population Baghdad says the provinces in Kurdistan make up.
The KRG disputes that estimation.
Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabbouri stressed however during a press conference after the vote that the “demands of the Kurdish region have been included in the budget.”
Shankali however refuted his claims, saying that the budget “not only marginalizes the Kurds, but it breaks their will and this situation is becoming more difficult to endure for the Kurdish people.”
The Kurds overwhelmingly voted to secede in an independence referendum in September, which was opposed by Baghdad.
In October, Iraqi forces retook disputed territories, including the oil city of Kirkuk, that had came under Kurdish control in 2014, and Baghdad imposed sanctions on the KRG, such as suspending international flights from Kurdish airports.
Baghdad and the KRG had been engaged in talks for months about the sanctions and Kurdistan’s share of the budget.
