2026-10-06T13:32:37+00:00
Shafaq News- Erbil
A senior delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will travel to Baghdad on Wednesday to press for a share of Iraq’s 2027 federal budget, with a focus on guaranteeing public-sector salaries, the KRG’s information department said on Tuesday.
The delegation will hold talks with Iraq’s Federal Finance Ministry, aiming to reach a “shared and fair understanding” of the Kurdistan Region’s financial and oil obligations and its budget entitlements.
The KRG has met its financial and oil obligations to Baghdad and will continue to do so in 2027, leaving no grounds to delay, halt or cut the entitlements, according to the department.
Read more: Erbil-Baghdad disputes: A cycle of missed opportunities
Salaries First
The talks will cover salaries and benefits for civil servants, Peshmerga forces, internal security forces and retirees, as well as payments to former political prisoners, families of those killed in past conflicts and social welfare recipients. They will also address the share of staffing allocations, operating budgets, investment projects and sovereign spending.
The delegation will seek to have salaries written clearly into the 2027 budget law, so that the Kurdistan Region employees “receive the same treatment as their counterparts elsewhere in Iraq, as affirmed by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court.” It will also push to exempt salaries and core payments from actual-spending limits and other restrictions that could delay or reduce them, and for a fixed mechanism to transfer the funds.
Read more: Iraq turns to bank borrowing to cover August salaries amid oil-revenue collapse
Weeks Of Talks
The visit is the latest in a series of Erbil-Baghdad meetings on salaries and the 2027 budget. From September 8 to 11, a delegation led by the KRG’s finance and natural resources ministers met Iraq’s finance, planning, and oil ministers.
On October 4, two KRG teams traveled to Baghdad. One delivered September payroll lists for the employees and retirees, along with August accounts, to the federal Finance Ministry to speed up payment. The other, led by Council of Ministers office head Omed Sabah and cabinet secretary Amanj Rahim, began preliminary talks on the share of the 2027 budget.
Source: Shafaq News
