Kurdistan Regional Government delegation in Baghdad to resolve dispute in implementing 2021 budget

A negotiating delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to settle a dispute over the implementation of the 2021 federal budget and resume sending KRG its financial dues.

On Tuesday, the deputy speaker of the Kurdistan Region's parliament said that the autonomous region has still not received finance disbursements it is owed by the federal government in Baghdad since the approval of the 2021 national budget.

In March, the Iraqi parliament voted on the federal budget, including the Kurdistan Region’s share, after often tense negotiations spanning for several months. In the weeks that followed, the Iraqi president then signed the bill into effect.

KRG spokesman Jutiyar Adil told Kurdistani media that the Erbil government delegation arrived in Baghdad in the evening. The trip, he added, comes to set into motion the Iraqi government sending KRG its financial dues.

He added that the KRG delegation will meet federal officials to discuss obstacles preventing the implementation of the agreement and ways to solve them.

"We can reach an agreement within the framework of the constitution and the Iraqi budget law," Adil said. "We are optimistic that we can reach an agreement on the implementation of the budget law.

The law stipulates that the Kurdistan Region will "hand over to Baghdad 250 thousand barrels of oil per day and half of the revenues of the border crossings, provided that the federal government sends 11.4 trillion Iraqi dinars to the region annually."