Hawrami is visiting Baghdad along with members of the energy and natural resources and finance committees for talks with federal officials, according to a statement posted on the Kurdistan Parliament’s website.
During the meeting, the delegation from the Kurdistan Region emphasized the need for constitutional solutions and that the Region’s rights and budget share need to be respected.
Hawrami said that payments from Baghdad could be made in return for submitting oil to Baghdad for export.
Under the terms of the 2019 Federal Budget Law, the Kurdistan Region must submit 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the federal government, but it has failed to send any at all. As a result, the Region receives enough funding to pay public sector salaries, rather than its full share of 12.67 percent of the federal budget, NRT reported.
In interviews with Kurdistan Democratic Party-affiliated media on Saturday federal oil minister Thamer Ghadhban had expressed some optimism that a solution could be found, but offered no details of what might be agreed to by Erbil and Baghdad.
Although optimism that relations between the Region and the federal government was high following the passage of the 2019 budget, the mood has progressively soured given the Region’s failure to abide by the law.
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