KRG demands salary payments, higher budget share from Baghdad
Shafaq News– Erbil
Kurdistan's cabinet on Wednesday called on Baghdad pay months of delayed salaries and set the Region's budget share at 14% to match recent census results.
In a statement, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stressted that the Region is owed salaries suspended "without legal or constitutional justification," although Kurdistan has met all its obligations under a tripartite oil export agreement, delivering an average of 220,000 barrels per day to Iraq's state marketer SOMO and transferring non-oil revenues and monthly financial statements.
The cabinet directed its negotiating team to prepare a constitutional and financial framework to govern budget and salary issues, a document it said would form the basis for talks with other parties on the new Iraqi government.
The Federal Supreme Court has ruled that salaries must not be linked to political disputes, a point the cabinet cited in pressing its case. Disputes over salaries have intensified since March 2023, when Kurdistan’s oil exports through Turkiye’s Ceyhan port were halted following an international arbitration ruling in favor of Baghdad. The federal government subsequently tied salary payments to the transfer of oil revenues and classified funds sent to the Region as temporary “advances” rather than regular budget allocations, according to statements issued at the time by Iraq’s Oil Ministry.
Oil flows through Ceyhan then resumed in late September 2025 under a federal–Regional arrangement that was later extended toward the end of the year. KRG spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani earlier explained that the current export agreement was originally set for three months and would renew automatically unless either side raises objections.
Under the current revenue-sharing terms, the KRG is required to hand over oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad in exchange for financial entitlements, primarily salaries. The Kurdish government, however, says it has received only about 41% of what it is owed over the past three years, describing the shortfall as an “investment blockade” that has deepened fiscal strain across the Region.
