Abdul Mahdi said during his weekly press conference that the federal government had not received any oil barrels despite its obligations under the terms of the federal budget law for 2019.
“The federal government will not cut off the salary [payments] of the Region’s employees at any rate,” he said.
Under the terms of the federal budget law passed in January, the Kurdistan Region should submit 250,000 barrels of oil per day to the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).
In return, Baghdad will transfer 12.67 percent of the federal budget to Erbil, NRT reported.
If there is a dispute, the central government is legally obligated to transfer enough money to pay the salaries of public sector workers in the Kurdistan Region, including Peshmerga.
At the moment, the Region is not transferring the required amount of oil, claiming that it has certain contracts to fulfil first. It appears that Baghdad is being tolerant of that for the moment and has been meeting its obligations under the budget law.
Iraqi Finance Minister Fuad Hussein said the federal government has transferred four months' worth of employees’ salaries to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but had only distributed the equivalent of two months’ worth.
During an interview with al-Sharqiya news agency on Friday, May 24, he said that the federal government had sent employees’ salaries of four months to the Region, but the salaries had not been distributed on time.
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