Kurdistan's Allocation in Iraq's 2023 Budget Stirs Contention as Parliamentary Modifications Come to Light

Shafaq News/ Shafaq News Agency procured an exclusive insight into the final draft of Iraq's Federal Budget Law for the fiscal year 2023.

This access came on the heels of the last revision by the Parliamentary Finance Committee which instantly stirred a whirlwind of discussion surrounding changes attributed to the Kurdistan region.

Amidst the exhaustive pages of the federal budget, lies a contentious nugget - an amendment initiated by the Parliamentary Finance Committee specifically pertaining to the allocations for the Kurdistan region.

This amendment has catapulted into the center of a fiery controversy, with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) labeling it as a deviation from "prior agreements".

The stir pivots around the commitments shared among the Federal Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani, President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani, and the Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani.

A dive into the budget text obtained by Shafaq News Agency showed that revenue estimates for this year amount to a 134,552,919,630,000 Iraqi dinars.

These projections incorporate revenues derived from crude oil exports, pegged at 70 dollars per barrel, and an average daily export volume reaching 3.5 million barrels.

The computation also integrates 400 thousand barrels flowing daily from the region's oil exports, all poised against an exchange rate of 1300 dinars per dollar.

On the flip side of this fiscal coin, the expenditure projections for 2023 soar to 198,910,343,590,000 dinars, thereby etching a fiscal deficit of roughly 64 trillion dinars.