The Kurdistan Regional Government will take part in drafting the federal budget laws for 2021-2023, Kurdish officials have confirmed.
A delegation from the Kurdistan Region’s ministries of finance and economy and planning visited Baghdad for talks on the federal budget on Sunday.
“The delegation met with the supreme committee to prepare the draft federal budget for 2021-2023 in Baghdad,” Deputy Minister of Planning Zagros Fatah, who is also member of the delegation, said in a statement on Tuesday.
He pointed out that the delegation’s participation in the meetings aims at setting the region’s technical needs in the upcoming financial budgets.
The delegation members are scheduled to meet with the relevant ministries and departments in the federal government to estimate the revenues from sources of income, based on which they determine the different needs for Iraq’s provinces, including the Kurdistan region.
“We have told Iraqi officials that a political agreement between Erbil and Baghdad on oil, customs and tax revenues shall be signed in order to indicate the Region’s needs in the budget,” Fatah added.
On Monday meeting, he noted, the price of crude oil per barrel was estimated in the 2021 budget at $43, and for 2022 and 2023 at $46.
The delegation stressed the need to determine the shares of each of Kurdistan region’s governorates unlike in previous years, he added.
Regarding the Region’s contribution to the budget, Head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the Iraqi parliament Vian Sabri hailed the step in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, saying Kurdish figures know their priorities better.
Prime ministers Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Masrour Barzani have lately agreed that “all the outstanding issues could only be resolved through continuous constructive dialogue and prioritization of common public interest,” she explained.
“Current challenges facing the country, including the economic situation and the coronavirus pandemic, could only be resolved through cooperation and joint efforts,” Sabri stressed.
